1 down... 7 more to go... erk!

My brother's left for Bristol. (That's in England mind you) He'll be there for a year of jolly good studies and maybe longer for a hopefully bright career. I think all in all, our main concern is for our Mom who obviously is alone fending the fort.

I really want to go back... I really do. I've got nothing to lose except the time I spent and the money for the tuition... I really wanna go home.

I've ended my first semester. Finally! I doubt it's the most illustrious in terms of my grades as I feel the impending near failures (may be getting one for real), but all the same, I'm glad it's done with and I've got something to show for it. (Scratch that... I got good grades... muahahhahaha!!!)

The end of my semester was the 17th of October and my photography class was required to organise an exhibition of our photographs. Luckily for me (still quite a sad case this...) I managed to leech off some photos of the exhibit from my classmates' Multiply sites. So to Eki, Anton, and Jan, maraming salamat and I'm crediting these shots fully as yours! Although I'm gonna take full credit for the display design... (hehe), but I've gotta give props to my classmates who helped create the artistic backgrounds for the photos. Without you guys, it wouldn't have been the same. So to Abbey, Aby2, Anton, Jan, Kath, Joana, Kem, Geno, Eki, Justin, Rejane, Maricar, Geli, and last but not least Kristine, thank you all!

I now present you, disColor...

P.S.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARRY BADER!!! :D :D :D

... right... moving on...

Event title: disColor

Theme: Colorful elements
Irony: This is a black and white photography exhibit... so what!

Not too shabby for someone who hasn't done event fabrication in a while... I still got it!

... from another perspective...

I thought this was the same side but thankfully it wasn't

MINE!!!! MUAHAHAHAHHA!!!

I blame the photographer at that time for this blur pic... but I didn't really like this one anyways

And the most Out-Of-Place-Abstract-Art Award goes to....


Y' know, for a really good blogsite, I can't get around posting pics properly... give me Facebook anytime.

Missives

Hello... all.

A belated shout out to my momma!!! Happy Birthday!!! I missed being there but at least force majeure allowed me to make one call before your flight. Hope you had a good time there (eventhough you were practically baby-sitting)

Sigh... it's almost near the end of the semester... not the first time I'm ranting about this innit? It's the most glorious time of enlistment and assignment cramming. I wish I didn't like it but heck, the pressure's the only thing keeping me in one piece at the moment.

(Oh, I almost forgot to wish my Tita Tess a very Happy Birthday and while she sleeps in, hope you find that missing piece of the puzzle)

I'm pretty much set towards the end of this semester... surprising actually considering I have like a helluvalotta things to do! I've got 4, or 5 papers due within this coming week itself, an exhibit to design for the 17th of October and to boot, my finals for Philippine History falls on the same date as well! Looks like I've got my hands full but if it's any consolation to me, I can't seem to feel the pressure as yet. (Maybe I'll hold off everything til Monday night...)

No matter. The only thing bugging me as of now is really the transcripts which I'm waiting on from Taylor's. It's really stupid but I can understand why the O.U.R. here wants an 'original' transcript whereas why it's taking a while in Taylor's (because of format issues) is also understandable (something to do with how old my course is). But at any rate, I ain't going no where if I don't get these things sorted and my coming semester was nearly held back because of this! But it's a good thing I'm showing some effort... still on the dreaded 'provisional' status but as long as I don't take too long (that goes for peeps at Taylor's - gotta call them soon), I think it'll be fine.

Better get my online ID activated... stupid system... it's like tyring to work with Vista!

asta

Birthday, omitted fallacy

Yes, here it is, the dreaded signifier of the inevitable decline... I am once again reminded that there's a bigger force out there which makes all of us insignificant in the eyes of Father Time.

Blah blah blah... I'll leave the rest of my lamentation to be swept away by the rainy day. Oh joy, my Nina has arrived to wash all the delusions of grandeur and hypocrisy.

*mumble* brrrthuhhh....

Tamad!!!

It's raining again! Raining like a bitch!! I don't wanna go to class!!!

Class is at 1pm by the way and I'm about half an hour from getting my ass canned... sigh...

This sucks... hope something will cheer me up when I get back home later... and no, I don't mean a naked Monica Bellucci covered in baby oil... (that works too actually...)







I'm still here... it's no use... the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that this is what I wanna do. Just give me a blunt and I can make up my mind faster than a second of celluloid in a projector.









Nope... still here. Not working. It's fuckin freakin me out that I'm trying to write in an incoherent line of nonsense.

Yeah... that's what it's all about isn't it?


Crap, now I'm thinking about the pangs in my gut. Rice? Burgers? Or should I just let my pain remind me that there's a bigger cause to fight for? It's coming again.


Four...or was is third time's a charm?


Now my single-inverted comma is screwed... it is so not cool.

Gotta run... yeah... better go now... 20 mins left... still raining hard.

Damn....

MERDEKA!!! Mat Tou Ga!!!

First off, Happy Merdeka!!! Independent from oppression, liberated from degradation... bah! who am I kidding? It's like a vicious cycle...

So I've been busy,
hence the long break in my sentence. Classes have been building up on me (and I speak for my classmates too) towards the end of our semester as the papers and exams keep piling up one after the other. Strangely enough, I think I owe it all to the cram-training I got from working and a little from the last-minute-syndrome of rushing assignments in Taylor's. Can't believe I'm saying this but I actually learnt something there! Hehe...

So what's new in the Pinoy-hood? I gotta start from the-now and back-track to... the week after my last post? (Almost lost myself for a moment there...)

I learned a new word! Flipochino... well, it's actually a title to a poem written by his Fil-Am (Filipino American) poet Cyn. Zarco but basically it's what I am. For someone who never actually had formal literature lessons in high school, I've gotta say that my lit classes are actually one of the few that I look forward to going to everyday. Not that I don't read or anything, but to be completely honest, I think I've bought more books for leisure reading here compared to when I was in Malaysia... (that brings the tally to 4 btw.). Nice!

Anyways, the past couple of weeks have been on and off pretty drabby because of the rain in the most inaproppriate (need spell check here) times of the day! Rain, rain, go away. Johnny wants to play. Boo hoo... LIVE WITH IT! Can't tell you though how much this makes me miss home... then again, I have the luxury of experiencing earthquakes and typhoons, so what does that leave me with? I dunno... bah!

Twas nice of Terence to drop me a message on Facebook. Hey bud! I'll bring back some balot for you! Muahahahahhaha!!!

Hmm... I watched a local stage production of West Side Story. Finally, I get to see what all the fuss is about! And even though it was a full dress rehearsal performance, I gotta say that the play was really moving... almost made me shed a few tears too! (Yes, yes... I have a... watchamacallit...) The actors (Christian Bautista - singer & Joanna Ampil - Theater Actress) were really into their characters and the choreography was almost flawless. Can't blame the audio personnel as there were static cracks here and there but besides the few technical glitches and a really really off-timed slip of the main cop actor towards the end of the play, it was a watch well worth anyone else who was gonna see it on its opening night. I got free tickets so I couldn't really care less. Whatever my (bad) review is, if the play comes by, just grab a ticket and watch it... or buy the DVD movie version... hehe.

I gotta get my research done... dammit!

Asta!

Wet, wet WET

No not the group... *yerch!* It's been raining at consistently random intervals! I'm stuck here waiting for the movie house to open it's doors so that I can pass the time laughing off Rob Schneider's "Big Stan" but I'm still gonna mope about the rain anyways.

Had my haircut last Friday... finally! It's been a few weeks since and I do miss the velcro-ish feeling of a 'Zero' shave... hehe... also had one of those to clean up my jawline. Feeling good now... :)

Signed up for my coming semester's classes. I'm glad I got those out of the way. This time around I managed to include myself for the soccer P.E. classes so it's 1 down, 3 more to go in the coming sems. To my cultural delight, I bought a copy of George Orwell's '1984' although it's not a required reading for my academic purposes but I've heard quite a bit about it and well, thought why not? It's ironic that I'm starting on a new book but not quite getting my other assignment reading settled.. but heck, that's what I have copious amounts of free time for :D

Wow... either their Hongkies or Malaysian Chinese but hearing these two blokes speaking in Cantonese behind me brings me back to Asia Cafe and a large suet cha!! Lol! Now they're talking about wives dating young boys?! Maybe I got the translation wrong... sigh... wish I'd learn more.

Hmm... I still got a little over 40 minutes left til I have to go... what else is there to rant about?

Nope... nothing's coming to mind. I'm just browsing through Facebook... I'm supremely bored due to lack of physical movement. Oh ya, I'm back on the bike (although I think I kinda broke it; didn't realise that imaginary weight lifting is actually quite tough, try 100 reps of bench presses and curls!!!) Yaay! Salvation! Charmander aka Blurry just got online... hmm... kacau time :D

Guess it's time to chat... Asta!

Ba-Gi-Yo!!! Whoa!!!

Eh... lamer pun...
Just got back on a weekend getaway to the highlands. Again, I'm so sorry no pics as of yet... partially cos I can't be bothered to get them out of my uncle's digital camera but mostly cos... yeah, that. Anyways, it was bee-oootiful! First off, the weather was extremely cold and I kid you not; it kicks the shit out of Genting's climate anyday! There were pretty interesting sights, especially the architectural marvels of the mountain people. Building houses on the mountains was one thing - building them along the slopes was a work of art on its own! The atmosphere was reminiscent to being in Cameron minus the acres of plantations, and to boot; there's even a mall up there - talk about cray-zee!!

I was there for a couple of nights but despite my holiday fervor was swamped with weekend assignments that I couldn't afford to leave back in the house. (Although by now I've still yet to start out typing the lot, but I'll be done before tomorrow morning - swear on it!)

All in all, the trip was really fun plus it's been on my 'sights-to-see' list for quite some time now, and I'm glad I've gotten to see it. Next stop, Ilocos Norte; my granpop's birth place! For now, my next 'project' is getting them Eraserhead concert tickets a.s.a.p! It's restricted to 18ers and above only so I'm sure to at least get a hint of action there. :D (Strict staying-in-with-relatives rules are still in action, okay...)

Asta!

P.S.

Dammit! I forgot to say where I went. The place is called Baguio City, and it should be on your "places to see" list if you plan to visit the Philippines!

JQ-KC