my mind wanders... on a thought of a green sunset

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Hertz

     This is for Hertz 2005-2006.

     At first, it seemed like the quietest section around the Home Economics Building with the quietest students. That was true during our first day, even some whispers felt like wind. I knew a lot of people from Hertz already, knowing them from the second or first year, but what it seems to be a crowd when classes start we were quite silent.

     A few days passed and the noise came into being, only in secluded groups. Different people mingle as one in a typical section, in our case different people mingled as a group, and everyone else soon followed. It was like a self-governing group. Organizing self-governing groups is a hassle.

     The officers sometimes got the things a bit to themselves. Our president had been confronted of being too bossy. I, the vice-president, was nearly impeached because of hypocrite leadership. The officers changed and adjusted themselves for the self-governing groups. But when would that thing last?

     ~

     The Sabayang Pagbigkas became the turnstile. No one agreed on anything. Some people were difficult to persuade. People had less energy with the activity. Progress was inconceivable. They have skill, but they don’t have the initiative to listen, understand or sometimes even work.

     Losing the Sabayang Pagbigkas due to the unmemorized lines just proved how rushed we did everything. Some things are not meant to be crammed. Our Filipino teacher added to the clash, suggesting beforehand not to join the Sabayan.

     Organizing self-governing groups is a hassle. Different ideas, different agendas, a whole different section. It was sometimes too awful to be in this section.

     The cold wars were frequent. Words used as swords. There were threats, angry shouts, misdemeanors and hurt feelings. No cooperation. A lot of problems arose. The boys were the prime noise-makers, followed by some girls. The boys told us that they were always screeched upon because of misbehaviour while the girls misbehaved themselves. The girls fired back with a defense that the boys should realize how noisy and irresponsible they were. It seemed to everyone that adjusting towards each other might be a problem.

     ~

     People learn. We somehow learned to accept each and everyone, although at a very slow pace. The groups slightly dispersed to give way for other people. It was like turning one gear at a time in a box full of gears jammed at each other. As one gear moved everyone else soon turned around. We still had a long way before all gears move as a whole system, trying to work out from a broken start.

     ~

     It was sometimes too dreadful to be in Hertz. But they said, “Love your own.” Maybe some moments within your section are irreplaceable.

     ~

     It may seem too late, but when our days were finally counted, all the gears now worked.

     ~

     Many days passed with everyone talking, ties established, and some noise tolerated. Everyone now felt Hertz as a section, at last. Many people were happy then. During the Science Camp, Hertz was there all doing something as a section. Interests met. Music, guitars, DotA, PS games, and even Magic - you could relate to almost anybody. Many confided with each other, unravelling the happiness behind all those times we shared.

     ~

     While using Yahoo Messenger, I felt talking to people from Hertz. I really enjoyed their company. Everyone feels that. They say that we’ll miss Hertz, and will joke about the summer, but the fact is clear - we all love Hertz.

     ~

     Tomorrow, we’ll be getting our cards and see our sections for the fourth year. We must move on now, even though everyone feels it’s hard to say good-bye to their section that they have just found the delight of being there, even just in a short time. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :7:07 pm ;

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

BDT

     BDT celebrated 7 months of dancing quality today. We played DDR (which had 1 token=1 credit= 2 people playing) and Para Para. There was a new game with tambourines and it was arm-cramping. Nica and pH enjoyed it though. ^ ^ pH and I got away with Sexy Planet Oni. ^ ^

     It was a long time ever since we played as BDT.

     A long time from 7 months.

     Nice one.

     *composed of Nica, Vanir, Kalen, Gelie, Niño, Marguax, Cean, pH, CM, Maton, and Aby*

     *oops, forgot me. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :10:09 pm ;

Sickness is a curse

     Sickness is a curse and a part of life. However sometimes it can be fun, and you’ll realize things as soon as your head starts spinning, and a few whoops *cough cough* and a sore throat accompanied with excess heat detected from your neck and forehead, I tell you, it is sometimes fun.

     It started with me being in Cavite with a sore throat and a lump in the head [while we played DotA with my cousins, the power blasted, it was dark, it was 8 in the evening, and the shop had that metal frame that slides downward when they close, and that metal framework was lowered, and since it was dark, and I am 5 feet and 10 inches tall, and it was LOWERED, go figure]. After having dinner and watching half of the usual week-end basketball game which my family and relatives played, I felt dizzy. I felt very warm too. I asked to check my forehead or neck if I had fever, I had an estimate of feverish to super duper hyper to the max (with wings) feverish.

     After going to my aunt’s house to lie down in dizzying pain, they brought me paracetamol. And water. In a glass. *gulp* and then sleep. After a few hours I was shivering. I was experiencing a known fact to me - my body’s temperature was high and then lowered down so quickly by the air conditioning, it could be fatal, but that was the first effect) so I remedied it with two thick blankets. That would restore me from a near hypothermic drop to my feverish state.

     I stayed for the night, and I continued drinking paracetamol. I woke up and took the morning habit with haste and bought a pack of Strepsils for my searing throat. I rode two jeeps to my elementary Alma Mater, Divine Light Academy Las Piñas, with my cousins. We played DoTA with my cousin (named Dave) and his classmates and other freshmen like him. After that we went to see my other cousin (named Jerico) to see how his clearance came out. After waiting in heat (and buying a liter of water and drinking it) we waited for my cousin (nicknamed Reji) and we searched for a good place for DotA. NOTE: The addicts were Dave and Reji.

     With all seats booked and no more shops to search, we rode a bus to SM Southmall. I encountered Marc Ladaga and talked to him for a bit. After we reached Casimiro, he left, and we conveyed the idea of continuing our travel in traffic.

     We reached SM and ran towards Netopia, and played one game. With Jerico and Reji pushing our base like there was no tomorrow, we lost the toothpick, but we played well. After that we came to Zapote Kabila. We went to my uncle’s dental clinic, and went to Gemmae’s to eat rice and a couple of different viands. We then rode a jeep towards my aunt’s house (where I stayed for the night) and got my bag. We went to my cousins’ house only to discover we didn’t have the key.

     We waited for a few moments, watched a tree burn, lied down in the road, tried to open the locks with alternatives, and we ended up buying Zesto and going to a nearby computer shop to play Raganarok. I love my high priest!

     When my parents came to pick me up, they pick the four of us and went to my other aunt’s house to eat and talk for a while.

     After that long hefty day, I was being awoken by my dad and mom and asked me if I want to rest or wake up and go to school. Nabinat ako. Dahil dun…

     “Pahinga na lang po ako…” *yawn* *sleeps after 5 seconds*

     I slept, drank more paracetamol and antibiotics, watched a lot of TV and played the guitar which was lying on the sofa. I logged on the net after dinner to ask about assignments or events that took place while I was absent, lying down the bed, watching TV.

     While using the Yahoo Messenger, I was talking to Varbi and to Lorraine, and they gave support to a fast recovery. That was touching [I’m serious!] and I felt that people care. Even while you are being tormented by sickness.

     Currently recovering. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :9:58 pm ;

Sunday, March 26, 2006

7th

     I almost forgot. Happy monthsary BDT! (Thanks to CM for remembering, kundi nakalimutanko na talaga…)

     Even though I wasn’t there when BDT started and my entitlement there was fixed when I got better in DM2, what I want to treasure there is the friendship of 7 months. That is something to remember, aside from the dancing, biking, skating and all other affiliations of BDT.

     Happy monthsary again!

my mind fleeted at :11:24 am ;

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Friday the 24th

     I was about to call my Friday the ultimate free time. There were a few obstacles and a few major laugh trips, and the last day of brutality for some.

     The major breakthrough was the fact that teachers were not attending the classes (except the science teachers with the very eager approach to simulating torture and knowledge at the same time). Filipino only became trouble for Pia because she finished her all-revised portfolio at 3 am. It was to be submitted to the supervisor, and our oh-so-great Filipino teacher didn’t come. Shocking for Pia… She missed a lot of slumber hours.

     Trigonometry went out with the “culminating” activity of having a quiz bee next Tuesday. I went volunteering to be the quiz master but Benjie was the quiz master. I became a contestant - no! I hate math contests, I really do. I am not good at math. I was telling everyone that I didn’t want to be a contestant, but I hushed myself up to avoid getting myself into trouble again.

     Physics was the usual teaching experience for Ms. Hedia. Fort he first time I didn’t listen to her, and I didn’t know the lesson beforehand (I’ve never read about it - details of electromagnetic forces) because I was playing Ragnarok on June’s phone.  It was Nikolai was playing, but then I saw it and was amazed by its cuteness. When the time came for “answer correctly, you can go” part, I copied Russel’s solution and scooted off.

     Free time started afterwards.

     After buying some food (our schedule whacked our biological clocks for hunger) and eating, I got the Stainless Longganisa and went to the retail to buy drinks and sat on the foot of the basketball court. As I was reading the first few pages of Stainless Longganisa, Bryan Bertol came in. Afterwards we talked a lot - about people in the campus, mainly. I was sure he was waiting for Mendel to come down and have their Chemistry clean-up (all those under Ma’am de Paula were not having lessons, those under Ma’am Coco, well, suffer more than the usual clean-up). After some long talk with him I went up the room and asked whether that Chem Olympiad would commence.

     The story behind the Chem Olympiad was a major laugh trip. Nikolai and I came late and we were left with 15 minutes to answer. While the others answered deeply with faces that of serious traces likewise of a periodic examination, Nikolai and I (with Pia soon following) were laughing and made a commotion at the Chemistry Lab. We finished the test, and we were left with 5 minutes of more destructive comedy. People who were answering looked at us with glaring eyes. We were still laughing then.

     Why would we even pass that laugh trip exam? We weren’t even sure about the question on “What element has a name that means hard-to-get?” If you know the answer, please tag it on my board. We really don’t know.

     I went up three floors and called out Carlos Miguel so that we could watch Angelica dance for their Latin American dance project under Ms. San Jose. When their performance started with Linnaeus’ African dance with all the boys, John Paul was the ultimate African star. He was so addressed in dancing that he really looked like an African. We also watched Darwin’s sensual Latin American dance courtesy of Romel Matthew Reyes. There were 4 sets of dances - a pair solo, then three dances of different people (some dancers were being recycled though).

     Angelica’s dance came next with some of the girls dressed as men. Their Latin American dance was okay, with a few mistakes that made Angelica mouth the words “poise”.

     After their performance was Darwin’s African music, with fire, leaves and bows and two drummers. It was long performance, and the drummers made an ending to make everyone smile. Slow beats rushing to a faster pace, and then stops. With all suspense built up, there was the last thud. It was done.

     After watching, we played Scrabble. Then Hertz watched the Schindler’s List. I wasn’t finished playing yet, and Therese was already helping me and CM. I missed the liquidation (which I called liquification and for once I made up a word, because there is no such thing as liquification in the dictionary) but I was there when the sniper shot down two Jews. That was the end of the brutality.

     English became a talk about the missing book, and we were forced to pay again, but we were saved by the funds left from the chemical buying and the physics decors.

     When Chemistry came, Ms. Coco discussed the missing 4 electrons on yesterday’s equation. Afterwards we answered another equation that when you get it correctly, you could miss the Tuesday class, or get it wrong and attend another torture session. I got it wrong twice, but I was exempted because of the seatwork on percentage yield.

     Advanced biology was to move the chairs task and wait until we were free to go. After 10 minutes Nikolai, Marc and I went to play DotA. Marc was teaching papa Nikolai the methods of using Balanar. After a few games (which I used Luna and Rhasta) I went to SM to buy a gift. I also went to Quantum, and I found Jonathan there and I played with him. I played Para before I went to Blue Magic and walked to McDonald’s for chicken and coke float.

     I went home tired and sleepy, and I slept in the bus again, awakened thrice by the bus conductor for tickets, fare and the door slam to signal our arrival at Alabang.

     That’s another Friday; hope you enjoyed sharing this day with me (how dramatic). Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :11:22 am ;

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Full Minimum Blast

     Today was at full minimum blast. That’s one paradox for my day, because it went with a balance of good and bad events for me. The good ones were better, on my happiness level, but the effect of the bad ones gave me something to worry about.

     TO START WITH: I have now changed my approach - it’s true, I’ve wasted 10 months of hideously doing nothing. Now, it’s my move.

     DETAILS: After some barges of depression sailing through me, my friends were worried (because I get very, very depressed with chances like of a Ragnarok monster card - 0.01%). But then some jokes were flung to my current distance and more funny and happy things spewed to me. It made me feel better.

     We watched Naruto on our first subject on Thursdays, Physics. BAD NEWS: It took 30 minutes to set the TV, the laptop and the cables up. GOOD NEWS: We still watched an episode on the laptop screen.

     The next subjects made the term “free time” obvious. BAD NEWS: We did nothing. GOOD NEWS: We were doing nothing.

     Lunch was the usual rice, but I got my viand from home. It was fried fish and a boiled egg (with the shell off). Ate Canteen got mad at me because I only bought rice. GOOD NEWS: I had lunch with a good bunch of people. BAD NEWS: There was no tiramisu for dessert.

     Chemistry used no calculators for that day, but no one escaped the fact that we incurred cerebral haemorrhage while the class continued. Ms. Coco was teaching us oxidation-reduction reaction. GOOD NEWS: The information learned would be useful for the Fourth Year. BAD NEWS: That was one torture class - the process of balancing was so long and so complicated that one problem had a mystery of 10 or 4 electrons.

     The free time continued until MAPEH. Afterwards I was doing my mask. I was using gel pens with my mask with these layers - white poster paint, a lot of brown poster paint, some yellow and red paints, white spray paint, and black packing tape) and still used the traditional African mask.

     Lester introduced us to a phone game that made question and answer one stripping experience. The game was general knowledge quiz bee with every correct answer a woman fully clothes gets stripped one at a time, and getting the wrong answer returns a garmet on the female and strips a man instead. Limits for the man were up to his boxers, with the woman, up to the skin. GOOD NEWS: It was general knowledge - it provided trivia (that’s nerdy). BAD NEWS: That was taking nudity to a whole new level (according to some people: My innocent eyes! Noooooo!).

     Hertz had this “bonding time”. This was first led by Darren who spelled words like JUGJOG and CHARACTERISTIS with hang man on the blackboard, and a lot of blank lines. After the thing got corny, Barvi and Ejai went copying famous people like Jeff’s “fine!” and Niñowell’s absences (how they acted that one out, go figure) and Niñowell’s late approach, which was never perfected, because there was only one Niñowell Cervan “Lady Cer” Tiglao. Ejai even copied Ms. Arboleda’s “punta na kayo sa ad bio room” and we were doing a laugh trip. GOOD NEWS: We enjoyed it. BAD NEWS: We were cleaning the advanced biology classroom.

     The advanced biology room had dust treasured from almost 10 years ago. As we removed all stationary filament dust (agiw) from the ceilings, and cleaning the bottles of preserved specimens with formaldehyde (which was incredibly toxic, inhaled, touched or ingested), our teacher was just standing like a supervisor. How teachers make up a good work force. That was a joke, and jokes are half-meant.

     Everyone got a look at the preserved brain tumor there.

     In the door after the stock room there was an emergency floor plan. Handwritten (in italic) after the printed word DIRECTIONS: was… This loses thrills, so this was the actual sample.

     DIRECTIONS: Letters only.

Blah….

Blah…

Blah….

Blah….

     We all made an effort of cleaning one of the most prehistorically dirty rooms of Manila Science High School. GOOD NEWS: It was clean. BAD NEWS: Almost.

     When I went home, I got to ride the fast St. Rose Transit. GOOD NEWS: I came early. BAD NEWS: I lost my antique watch. Now that was bad - it was my parents’ birthday gift to me. Oh no…

     When I reached home (go and reach are two entirely different verbs) I saw the lights open, and the gate flung open. When I looked into the doors and the second gate, it made an impression to me. BAD NEWS: It was 7:30, and I was locked out of the house. GOOD NEWS: M parents came at 8.

     Sometimes fortune never reaches out to many, and it just dips its way to people, whether in the compensation of good or in the punishment of bad. Précis: May mga pagkakataon na maswerte at hindi. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :8:56 pm ;

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Post Size: 4.0 x 10^-4 sentences

     To make up for the days, I made a micropost.

     For the next seven days I have assigned my life to a person.

     May this guide me to open the very thing that was locked from me.

     See, micropost? Melodramatic? Or just plain nonchalant? Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :10:56 pm ;

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Short Stories, Movies and Moments

I had read some of the short stories of III-Darwin as part of the clearance in English III. It was to circulate the stories within our group and read the stories and write reactions in our usual green paper.

I read Ms. Dominique Calilung’s story with the title “Lost Fortune”. It was very good, and I enjoyed reading it. I read 6 works for reaction purposes and I read one by Coley’s.

It was a story laughingstock. It tackled a story about an elephant and an ant. Leah said she could slap Coley with his short (very short) story.

“And the ant dig and dig…”

And one more note. There was just one ant.

We also watched Cowboy Bepop in Advanced Biology class today, courtesy of Ms. Correa of course (she was an anime addict herself, she knew what yaoi, shonen-ai and fanfics were) and it considered some biotechnology. The lymphocyte nanomachines gave way for new viral technology.

We only lasted 44 minutes on the running.

That’s okay, and I would expect more film showings for Social. ^ ^ Currently Watching Passion for Dessert with Jacques Torres. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :7:15 pm ;

Monday, March 20, 2006

Haggard

Today was not a good Monday. We had a quiz in Trigonometry (and Mrs. Angeles kept my foldables, meaning it was nice) about the right angle trigonometry. Our Physics test with Ma’am Hedia’s usual bookish questions derived from her Physics Book. It was a bit easy, however it was a little bit brutal.

Lunch was a bit early, and I had to eat food from the canteen, and today they didn’t have vegetables and I went for the liquid chicken curry. I ate a bit faster and did my notes on Computer Science and Chemistry at our homeroom. Same noisy dirty room.

Mr. Rafols gave us a 30-item exam on loops and HTML. It was another early finish, and we went up to the library to watch World War II at the library. The tapes were from Time and the other set was entitled “The Unsolved Mysteries of the Second World War” with some clips on the codes transmitted in the plan of the Pearl Harbour Attack.

Math was such a discerning exam, I got 61/75. If I didn’t put the i in the answer I could have gotten 63 instead. I’m not good at Math (this is true) and I am readily confused with numbers and stuff.

Chemistry was a stand out. Literally it was a stand out, because we stood up (the arbiters and me) because we didn’t have that assignment on mass-mole relationships. Darn. There were even some remarks on the science camp. I preferred writing the truth rather than lying deliberately about the stupidity of the camp (in some particular manner, not as an over-all) and finished the reaction paper while talking to Bea, Ronald and Marc about the Slide for Life and facial wash.

The haggard season began after finishing the English Time, with the précis writing and all stories tragic and inspirational. Then I suddenly felt that I haven’t talked to any Hertz people so I moved on to Mendel, then no one, then I talked to Thea and to Burbank. I felt like I want to talk but I can’t. This is one haggard season. I felt sleepy, tired, sick and fatal. I felt weak that few hours of free period in MAPEH and frequencies in TLE. Advanced Biology cheered me up a bit. Mary and I were betting on a treat to Starbucks in getting a low score. I got 42/60 and she got 45/60. She even was confident I would have a greater score, even though I was sure that I had the questions of Clostridium, biodegradation and microbial cell-surface display all wrong. I even got that rubber tree wrong (it needed the word Brazilian!) and I just wanted a caramel frappe or a light latte.

Haggard season or not, I wanted to make a blog post of how tiring my days were. Ciao~

P.S. Philippe taught me the way how to deal with our Filipino teacher. Hear no evil. ^ ^

my mind fleeted at :9:21 pm ;

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Prop, Plan and Camp

I still have a lot of things to do - create a chemistry notebook because mine was lost and create a whole thesis to be passed on March 20. Since I engaged in a lot of activities beyond this Sunday, let’s saturate the events held ever since Wednesday.

Wednesday was the last day of prop-making. The people who managed the play in our section wanted all the props be prepared on Thursday. We all agreed to go to Manila at 9 am, so that we’ll have enough time to finish the props. However, as Filipinos, most of us came really late. I did too, in fact, because I came10:30 (I woke up at 9) and the props people already there finished Maria Clara’s room.

After finishing the room, we all had lunch. However Mary, Lorraine and I planned to bring the team to SM Manila. However they said it was too far and we needed time to finish the props. So, under the feeling that I really wanted so, I decided to go on myself.

I reached SM Manila alone and did Para Para, with the usual mixes of songs available. I played DDR, but since 1 credit (or 2 tokens) accounts for two players, Lechie (the fat girl who is so boastful of her skills in DDR back when we started playing it) stepped into the scene and said that it was a waste if I played alone. I did not talk to her, and she pressed the two start buttons of DDR. I chose versus, for the sake of respect, even though she herself was a typical person not to be respected. I had control of the songs, so she just had her own options of playing. After 9 songs (the fifth was whacked, and I would not want to wait for the Quantum guy to fix it and play another set), I left the place.

I went to Ace hardware and bought a large paintbrush and then bought paint in National Bookstore. I then withdrew some money because I just used my money in buying the paints and I wouldn’t have my commuting fare back home. I then went to Tokyo Tokyo to get some beef misono, red tea and green tea lychee ice dessert. After paying, I just realized that something was missing. The paints! I returned to the ATM Machine, there was nothing there, I checked Tokyo Tokyo, I checked the counter in National Bookstore, and I checked almost the whole floor of SM in search of textile paints. With hope and time lost and my ice dessert melting, I bought another set.

I returned to Lorraine’s condo unit and found the props finished painting the boat, and were already singing using the Magic Sing. I ate lunch using chopsticks, which was nice, however the rice wasn’t sticky enough because the sauce poured all over it and loosened the grains, so chopsticks were a bit unreliable. After my lunch I gathered the cheesecloth, the textile paints and the spray paints so that we could finish the silhouette background and climbed the stairs to the roof deck.

We were copying the dusk scene from Trixia’s calendar, and had a pink and purple sky. Spraying the whole cheesecloth with white was impractical, so we just imbued the pink textile paint first, and used it all up. We needed more pink to create purple because the paint that I bought contained dark blue. The wind speeds rose and soon enough we were lying on the cheesecloth being weights to avoid our background from flying into Padre Faura. Then we were back to the paint problem, so Loribelle and Angel gave some money and I ran (literally) to Robinson’s Manila and even encountered some familiar faces of our batch. I was dismayed with my travel, because they did not have pink or purple, I bought red and white textile paints. I rushed back to the roof deck of Astral Tower (we preferred doing the backdrop at the roof deck).

We soon found out that the red and white textile paints mixed as if they were ketchup and mayonnaise, and did not produce colors close to pink. So we mixed white and dark blue and formed a cuter form of blue but not purple. So, we just used the paint water (pouring water over the textile paint and transferring the liquid unto a separate container) and brushed the cheesecloth with it. It worked! After brushing the places in blue paint water, some areas of pink became instant purple! We then just used blue for the remaining part. I was wearing my Juniors and it was stained with textile! Fact: Textile paint is irremovable, and is used on materials, etc. especially on cloth. No! My Juniors shirt!!! After finishing the sky, Lorraine used up the black spray paint and put a simple silhouette in it. The job was finished.

Thursday was a not-so-bloggable day except for the practices. We (the props people) soon found out that there were a lot of props needed. It was a bit irritating because the play fest was the next day and they just popped up and said “We need it tomorrow!”

Friday was the busiest day of the week for us. From the morning, I was late for 15 minutes because my dad had to get me a bunch of coconut leaves as grass for the play fest. I then reached school and the third year batch was under the frenzied effect of the “rush mode”. We then planted the coconut leaves unto Styrofoam and agreed upon the transitions. When the time came, the play fest of the celebrated Noli Me Tangere began.

The first performer was Darwin. It was short; it was less than 15 minutes. The next section was us. We began the play which became very dramatic, but the very good dialogue was inaudible. The transitions became hasty, and our oh-so-great Filipino teacher even ordered me to hold the microphone. We performed for 25 minutes, so had a 10-minute deduction. The next performance was Calvin’s musical Noli. The fourth was Ptolemy’s. The fifth was Mendel, which surprisingly came in 15 minutes exact. The next was Linnaeus, with Iric having an intermission and he being Jose Rizal. The seventh was Berzelius. The last was Burbank, and they had dry ice which made the tinola cold but steamy.

The awards were nice. Calvin had the best script, Mendel had the best actor, Luis (their Ibarra), and of course, Josha was the best actress, being Sisa. They fourth placer among all the plays was Linnaeus, and I forgot the third and fourth placers, but I’m sure which play was entitled the best. It was the fifth. Congratulations, Mendel!

After the play, there were no more classes and everyone was permitted to go home in preparation for the Science Camp later in the afternoon. I spent the afternoon preparing the Sci Dama boards.

I was surprised to find the Philips Room open. I went in and there was Sasaki-sensei. She asked me if there was something to ask, and I said I was thinking of it. I realized I forgot what was it, and I busied myself of thinking what to ask. I asked what character was correct, and 2-tailed “Oni” (devil) or 1-tailed. She chose the one-tailed, and soon I used up all the questions asking the Kanji of this and that. She said that she was amazed, asides from the fact that I learned up to Level 2 Kanji by myself, what she said was amazing was the importance I was giving it and the way I wrote it. I wrote correctly, with the designated strokes. I thanked her and left the place, finding that everyone had been gone. It was 3 pm already.

I went to McDonald’s and bought a Coke float for lunch. I then walked to UN Avenue and crossed it to Times Plaza, where I figured Bea would be. I saw Christian, Ronald and Bea playing the usual DotA, and I joined for an hour. After a monstrous kill, I went to PhilAm Life and went to my aunt. I borrowed her phone so I could contact my parents about my things for the Sci Camp. She even gave me water bottle and P100 for snacks. Thanks!

I returned to school for the registration. Everyone was in civilian clothes, and I was still wearing my uniform. I registered with Royce; she made skip a whole line to the registration. Another bout of gratitude! Then my parents came with my things, in the blue bag which I used when I was a sophomore. My mom bought me some snacks and batteries at Mercury Drug Store, and I rushed to Astral Tower to ask a big favour. I encountered Lorraine and others going to school already, and I asked Lorraine if I could take a bath at the condo. She said yes. I rushed there and Nikolai was there too, he was playing Final Fantasy. I took a quick bath and got ready for the Sci Camp.

I went to the school’s quadrangle and looked for our group. I saw Maritoni and Ronald there, and I sat down with our group and talked for a while. Then, Mr. Monkey King Mendoza was there as an emcee. He then told us the first instructions in the Sci Camp. The first was nook-making.

Meeting the group was a bit quick. We immediately got some blankets and some rope, and chose the area beyond the basketball court as our nook. I saw familiar faces in our nook, like Angelica, Raphael, Jeff of Calvin, Stefen and Marc of last year’s Sci Camp. We got our nook fixed, and the second year people did our number on bond paper, and we posted it on the court.

After nook-making, the instructions were given for the team-building. There were 6 stations, each with a corresponding task. We needed to finish everything within 1to 2 hours or so, and each has point equivalents. When the signal was given to choose our first station, we first did the station near Maceda. It was like a Bingo game consisting of squares with statements such as “Has surname that starts with the letter B” and stuff. We did the black out - we just used everything truth and nearest to the truth that was available to our group members. We got 100 points!

The next station was the Feathers effect, and it was a task of making a wad of cotton stay airborne for the longest period of time. We did it in about 6 seconds.

The next station was the Break. It was taught by Danikko, and the task was to do Break 6 to 10. It was a little bit fun, because everyone was clapping their laps. We then finished our task and we did the Drop the Bomb.

Drop the Bomb needed some team members to pull ropes from a circular ribbon to get a can and put in a pot. It was played versus by two teams. The fun part was we never got to get the can. The other team dropped the can early in the game making them the losers with 75 points and us the winner, for 100 points.

The next station was the Polygon something. The team interlaced hands, arranged ourselves in a circle and closed our eyes. The task was to form a polygon while our eyes were closed, so we have to rely on our senses and a strategy to get this right. The facilitators were too busy to get to us, and we planned about doing it. This is how it works: Get a limited amount of people (back then we were 24, which were good because it was divisible in so many ways) and have the people count off. The strategy was to make certain people move whenever a shape is given. If an ellipse is given persons 12 and 24 needed to move. If a triangle was given persons 8, 16 and 24 needed to move. If a quadrilateral was given persons 6, 12, 18 and 24 needed to move. It was making the people as points and pulling certain points makes a shape.

We were assigned to form a square. So I shouted the instructions.

“Ang gagalaw lang 6, 12, 18 at 24! Yung iba magpadala lang sa paghila nila. 6, 12, 18, ung movement ninyo backward lang step by step (ako kasi ung 24)”

We were even taunted by the facilitator. “Square na ba yan? Baka nga 4 sided nga yan pero di naman square.” She was right - if the tension was not right we might form a rectangle.

We did a square and got 100 points. ^ ^

Our last station was at the UCB (Under the Computer Science Building). The task was to make a tableau. However Randolph Francia closed all stations and we only got 25 points for the last station.

After the team-building, Maritoni, Angelica and I did the Survivor’s Challenge. The first task was fishing. For about the whole time we thought we were eating the fish we caught. It was a lie; all we needed to do was catch the fish. I was assigned to catch the fish, and I used up all the time available to catch 2 (it was the instructions). When Ms. Correa signalled the start I and almost everyone immediately got 2 fishes. Iric and I just stayed a little longer and caught more fish.

After the fishing was the egg cooking. The materials were a makeshift stove, barbecue sticks, a safety pin, 2 eggs, the instructions for the pledge, the lyrics and 2 Rubik’s Cubes. Maritoni, Angelica and I were talking about the size of our stove. I suggested the large one, but she said it would take a longer time to heat a large stove. If we take the smaller one the egg grilling would be difficult. So we took a medium-sized stove.

We got a lot of help with this one. Raphael did the Rubik’s cubes and helped with keeping the embers alive by fanning the stove, with the fan courtesy of Maritoni. Ronald bored holes into the eggs (the task was derived from Extra Challenge) and Maritoni pushed the barbecue sticks in it. Angelica and I started fanning the stove. Ronald arranged the embers so that every coal inside it was burning. After about 10 minutes of grilling the task was to eat the eggs. Maritoni loved eating it, and I helped Angelica in eating it because she doesn’t eat eggs. I have to say, grilled eggs were tasty.

Jeff, Angelica and I got the food for dinner. We got early and 29 food stocks were given to us, however we were 32 on the team. We needed to go to Ma’am Hedia and let her sign the stub and follow-up the food. Angelica and I returned to the canteen.

There was a problem - the line of people was not even moving. The food stocks were used up and were being prepared for the moment, and a lot of teams were starving. There was even an announcement like “Team 13, diet daw kayo!” Angeilca and I were starving too, however we needed the 3 remaining food for dinner. James Andal even followed the line encountering the same problem except for the number of food he needed (he needed only 2). Now we were talking starvation. We asked Sean to help us (because he was already near the line) and gave our stubs to him. After he got 5 food stocks we got our follow-up and rushed to eat dinner.

While Angelica and I were eating (we guessed the remaining food was for Laurence), Ronald came inside the nook with a deck of cards. He did some magic tricks for us while we ate. Our food was bland vegetables on dry rice, with some cold potatoes and chicken and adobo. I ate Angelica’s serving of vegetables because she said that she only eats vegetables cooked by her mother. By the time we ate it was already 12 midnight.

After dinner, the camp was officially a slumber party.

It was then announced that the people who did not have dinner will be provided food from outside the school. I was preparing the Sci Dama with the arbiters. From the 30 teams only 22 representatives came. It took us a lot of shout-outs fro the stage to get the representatives. After 30 minutes of relentless shouting, the Sci Dama began.

The arbiters and the Science teachers agreed that the winning team representatives will receive 100 points and the losing teams will have 75 points. The teams with absolutely no representatives will have no points.

Philippe and I played Sci Dama. Jermaine joined us and we were eating Pringles and we were hanging out the Maceda lobby playing and talking. We even tried the game without the usual arrangement of pieces.

I rappelled for the first time and it was a bit scary (I’m acrophobic) but it was swell. My hands felt burned because of sliding down the rope and Royce even gave me moral support (thanks again!). Now I would want to remember to put a hand near my waist, another hand above me, legs open and straight, jump away the wall and release.

The Science Games began. However the other team members did not join most of the games. Ronald, Raphael and I played the word-building. The game was a physical task of spelling out words using letters in the boxed provided and travelling around alternately in empty bottles of coke and sprite. We got 2 points (we won the game) and received 100 points.

The Amazing Race was then about to commence. I really wanted NOT to join this, because I want to play Sci Dama with Philippe and hang out for the morning or rappel or even sleep. I was tired, and I did almost everything for the team so I wanted to rest. Now the new problem arose. Among the 32 people within our team, only 11 were available (including me). But they wanted me to go, and after a long time of argument I agreed to join the Amazing Race. Our team had no Seniors aboard, so we (the Juniors) were the guide to the stations.

We first did the Eat All You can station. It required 2 members and Raphael and Jeff did the task. It was disgusting, because Jeff ate a rotten bitter gourd (ampalaya). Raphael got to eat jelly with ketchup and dried cheese whiz. We then rushed to the Crawl to Death Station. Te task was to cross a garter field by crawling underneath without making any bells ring. The crawler is to get a piece of picture and cross the field back. The picture must be formed (another station). Marc, Stefen, Hannah, a first year and I did this. The floor was covered with flour, which was a disadvantage because flour is stick when wet, and we were perspiring like faucets rushing water heavily. Good thing we finished it very early, because we visualized the picture already.

We then rushed to the stage and did the Twister Game, which Ronald and Prince joined. The game had a spinner which assigns a body part to a color. The players had 4 dots of different colors to choose from: 4 dots of red, green, blue and yellow. It was a very long game, because the other teams had endured the gruelling task of balancing themselves in positions they were ordered to. We gave them moral support and Ronald and Prince won us 100 points.

The next station was the Crazy Frog. It was a noisy disgusting experience for some people especially the girls who went screaming across the net getting frogs. It needed a representative from the four year levels in our team, and our only first year stepped out and got a frog. The next person was Marc, being a second year. The next was Jeff and Raphael. Jeff got a frog to be used for the Fashionista Frog. The task lasted for 41 seconds! It was fast, and we moved on to the next station.

The next station was the Foot Loose. The task was to jump the first garter over the second without stepping or missing it 10 times. After Hannah trying it with no luck and I missing it, Raphael did it in a minute.

The next station was the Worm Relay. 10 people needed to transfer worms fro each other without dropping any worms. While we waited we practiced on some carabao grass leaves. Marc got the idea of cupping your hands and opening it to the cupped hands of the next person. We did it fast and easy.

The second to the last station was the uncovering a word through a reaction. The reaction was obvious, it needed heat. However we came there and there were no matches, so I had to rush to the Science Department and get the match. We then burned the word “intron” over the paper.

We prepared the frog’s costume at the nook, using santan flowers, bandages and the leaves of the five-finger plant. While the people rested for a while I joined the Hertz team lying down, asleep, playing the guitar or talking about such. Then the facilitators woke everyone up and started the Fashionista Frog.

Ms. Coco facilitated the Fashionista Frog. She snapped at everyone who did not follow her instructions, and within her rage the frog fashion show started. It was boring, and everyone wanted to sleep, however Luis, Bea and Julius made a fun of the frogs. Luis showed their frog with a ribbon on, with the reason “Simplicity is beauty” and Julius with the “Maria Clara” costume. Bea had their frog transformed into a mermaid and let the frog hang from the ropes.

When the pledge was initiated Ms. Coco was angrier than expected, since the things were not going within plan. After our group pledged by creating a revised version from the first and third groups’ pledge, I got my pillow and slept sitting down with Angelica.

When the pledge was finished, I was awakened by Angelica and the singing was started. I looked up the sky looking bluish lavender. It was twilight already! The environment was cold according to some people and we slept. The pledge was finished by 6 am. Maritoni slept while Angelica and I asked the people if they want to eat. Some wanted to eat, and we went to the canteen. Jeff and Stefen got the food, and we went back with eggs and sausages, packs of Milo and some bananas. Angelica and I ate and got our cups filled with hot water for the Milo.

Thea joined us in the water filling and saw a long line of people staggering for hot water. We went in line, and soon other third years were asking us to fill their Styrofoam cups with water. The dispenser’s faucet was destroyed, so a fork was used to turn the water on and flowed into our cups. After some glasses and a few stirs we enjoyed hot chocolate while walking.

After cleaning the nook and removing the blankets and ropes, we all fixed ourselves to go home. I joined Philippe and the others who reserved the whole Paco PC Internet Café and played DotA for 4 straight hours. After playing they went home, but I went up the Astral Tower to borrow a Chemistry notebook.

I borrowed Lorraine’s notebook and had lunch there at Astral. I even slept there for 2 hours, waking up because Darren was victimizing Mary for leaving her phone at the room. Loribelle and Darren were laughing at me because I slept with positions tiring for them to do, because I wasn’t sleeping in a straight manner. When the time reached 3 pm we went home.

I slept on the bus and through the travel was a hot one. The sunlight felt like fire and I haven’t drunk water for about 4 hours. I reached home and found out that no one was home. I bought a coke and drank it, ran to a house where I thought my brothers were, but I found my parents there, and I waited for about 30 minutes before we went home. I slept with the air conditioner on, and woke up 11:30 pm. I had dinner and slept again.

That’s one long post and I hope you had the patience to read all of this. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :1:57 pm ;

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Props

     I went to practice for the Noli Me Tangere play. Being the props leader, I am responsible to finish all the props needed in 2 days (given today and Wednesday). I woke up early in the morning, and woke sluggishly (I read a book so I slept up to midnight) and my mom was already yelling at me to wake up. I would always stand up, then sit down on the nearest comfy bed or sofa, and sleep 15 minutes before I stand, walk a few feet, and fall asleep again.

     After the usual morning habit, I only got a few bites of breakfast (it was delicious, sautéed vegetables in the morning) and rushed out not to be late.

     I reached destination about 8:30. There were quite few people there, and some of them were playing the usual badminton. I practiced guitar with Russel under Marc’s tutelage. He taught us the chords and strumming of “Sandalan” by 6cyclemind. I got to use Joemar’s classical guitar, which was very ideal for my fingers which were thick enough to block one another. As we practiced the guitar Kathrina was already assigning the work to be done.

     I and Lorraine went to Robinson’s Place and bought 6 1 whole illustration boards and 6 cartolinas for the backgrounds. We would be requiring a lot of paint, so we needed to rush to finish three specific things:

A stone (which must be lightweight because it will be thrown to Ryle in the play)

Three tombstones (with writings copied from Paco Park’s own authentic tombstones engraved in Spanish, which dated back to 1910)

A draft of Maria Clara’s room

     When we reached Lorraine’s condo unit for some scissors and glue, Mary called and told us about the time. It was already declared lunch by our director. So we headed straight to Jollibee, but we left immediately, because there was no space for 8 people (the two of us plus Mary and the others) so we went up to McDonald’s just beside Jollibee.

     I suddenly got an urge to buy the McJelly Trio Cappuccino just for trying. I tried at, and it was a little bland. The toppings were bitter when eaten alone, and the coffee jelly tasted like water. Only the ice cream there was normal.

     After eating, time spelled 11:30 am. They said to return at 12:00. So we (Mary, Lorraine and I) had 30 minutes to do our plan - go to SM Manila and play Para Para and Dance Dance Revolution.

     After a 5-minute jeep ride and an umbrella (it was raining, thank God for that! If it wasn’t then the sun would have scorched us) we took the path which Philippe calls the “wet side” (mamasamasang gilid) of SM. We took two escalators and a brisk strut to Quantum Amusement.

     I first played Para Para and got attention, not only Mary and Lorraine’s but also a few people. It was embarrassing, and I got 1st place on the ranking. I then played DDR with Lorraine - just one shot. We first played Break Down, with my avatar on Standard 1.5x and hers Light 1.5x. Then, we did Jane Jana, with me on Heavy 2.0x, and Lorraine on Light 2.0x. The next song was Let’s Groove, with my options set on Heavy 2.0x and hers Light 1.0x. The next was Holic, which I did a B, with Heavy 2.0x. She was playing it Beginner 2.0x. Our last song was Love Shine. I played it Heavy 1.5x and she played it Light 1.5x. It was a bum because I nearly perfected it, I only lasted 347 steps. Now, the freaky part was the spectators! There were so many of them!

     We returned to Lorraine’s condo and started with the tombstones and the stone. Lorraine did the papier mache stone by crumpling tissue and applying tissue with glue mixed with a little water. Mary cut the tombstones from illustration board. I made three, and I was responsible for spraying it with black and white paint to make it look like an ancient relic.

     The other props people came (my props committee consisted of all women, except me, the leader) and did the plans for Maria Clara’s background. After letting the tombstones and the stone dry up, I assigned Therese and Hagar to paint it, while the three of us again went to Paco Park to copy the Spanish epitaphs.

     Angela came at last, with the cheesecloth! She used up 220 pesos. There were 2 thin cheese cloths. After asking Bea to copy all the inscriptions, we went back to Astral. But while walking I suggested buying some ice cream from a store beside the Girl Scouts Building. Mary, Lorraine and I had Twin Popsies which made a good mess with our hands because the awesome heat liquefied in the instant it was removed from the freezer.

     We went up the building and started painting the finished background. We allowed Mary to say good-bye to her acrylic (we were dead sure it was going to be used up completely) and started painting. We even got to see Sakura’s final judgement on Animax. We finished the frame, the flower vase and the cabinet until 4:30 and we all packed.

     After bidding good-bye to the props people, I rode a bus to Alabang and a jeep to Soldiers Hills. When I reached there I waited in the tricycle terminal so that I could reach Block 9. Then I saw a very wide rainbow. The arc stretched long and it was fun to observe, because rainbows are rare. It dissipates easily too, so I took some time in watching it. I know for a fact that water droplets are in constant motion and light from the sun changes angles every second as it sets, so a rainbow would only last about 10 minutes.

     I have to say, I am a bit addicted to coffee now. I just had a cup of mocha and it still has the soothing aroma and sweet aftertaste behind.

     Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :6:38 pm ;

Monday, March 13, 2006

Small Talk on Expenditures

     If you see a Highlights post below, it was super delayed. It was made to be published the very same Friday, however my internet card ran out and I had to wait for Monday to acquire money for a new one.

     Now, we talk about buying grades.

     Don’t ask everyone who had the 125 summative exam in Social Studies what the test contained. It was just plain horrific. Ms. Lazaro did make a good exam out of, let’s say, 12 topics, amounting to almost a hundred pages of worthwhile reading of the thick Perry book.

     Now, I have to admit, I don’t know a lot of the exam. I read (skimmed!) the Perry last week and not one info stayed in my memory (with a size smaller than a floppy disk, imagine giving me assignments…) The ST part was so last two weeks ago and the exam was delayed, so my mind was not refreshed on the topic. I particularly hate returning to a topic because its quiz was delayed.

     Plus points in mind, Ms. Lazaro assign book donations. It must be in Filipino, can be of history or economics and civic science, and a lot of stuff. I brought 3 books which my brothers used during their high school years and was pretty useless around the house and accumulated much more dust than expected.

     The surprising thing about it is the fact that the three books amounted to 20 points of bonus items for the failing 125 quiz of mine. When I informed my classmates about it, the grade buying had begun.

     Who even though they would make a deal anyhow, they planned to buy books from Recto and donate them as if “they were in our house, so old and dusty”, and get points for being so generous. It was amazing and sarcastic at the same time.

     Speaking of books, that would be a good cleaning problem for me since those old books can be teleported to the school anytime. They would save a lot of bookshelf space and make me pass the 125-item exam.

     Now, we talk about backgrounds.

     Even though Mrs. Vidal told us that the background would not be so important, we (the props people) would just brighten up the play even for just ten minutes so that we will have the feeling of accomplishment.

     That planned accomplishment currently amounted to 560 pesos.

     Trixia gave us a calendar full of wood setting silhouettes to choose from. It was nice, since we could intensify this on the cheesecloth and get on with our painting session. However the P300 I gave to Angela to buy the cheesecloth was not enough, and the canvassed amount rose to a whooping P500.  Now the spray paints would do if we had stencils so we need to bring a lot of cartolina, masking tape and cutters to create silhouette stencils and use Mary’s acrylic to paint the pink-violet dusk sky. Difficulty Rating - [6 out of 5 stars] and the play would already instigate on Friday.

     The expenditure was flat out horrific for our teacher, but it was just plain old disciplinary money. Tardiness is very expensive. Through the disciplinary act of payment (see Highlights post) we collected P1080 because of the base payment and the payments due to traffic, sloth and just plain tardiness. Absences included.

     I played DotA with Hertz just now, and I have to say - I am going stupid. I can’t play well (include the fact that they were brutal and they went pushing through) and I wished I was with Mendel. I now prefer kindness over brutality in the game. But it’s no big deal; after all, I just have to accept the fact that they were just plain fatalistic.

     Clearance is difficult - I lost my notebook in Chemistry, so I have to rewrite a new one by Monday. I have to design a mask too - African style, so I need to go to a DDR game zone and play Afronova Primeval (Revenge or 8 bit, Standard) because there was a picture of African faces there. I could get an idea.

     Time to wash the dishes. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :8:08 pm ;

Highlights [delayed post!]

     My feet are hurting a lot ever since we did home version DDR. It was cool and was a bit inexpensive, but it was a sole-crashing heel-pumping regime that screamed “Ouch” to our feet. Step, not stomp.

     We did our Latin American presentation yesterday, during our homeroom period. The boys wore long sleeves (I wore it old red) and the girls went Bohemian and off-shoulder what-you-might-call-it blouses(?). But the real eye catcher was Elijah. He wore a pink Bohemian dress and an off-shoulder blouse(?) and a blonde wig making her a Latin American clone of Marilyn Monroe. He was so gay that morning. One couldn’t help but laugh a bit or comment on how frilly his dress was.

     The African music presentation by the other half of the class was ok, with the Etheria-themed activity series for metals and hydrogen (the chant went: LiKBaCaNa MaZCre CdNiTin PlumHi CugAtu, which means lithium, potassium, barium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, zinc, chromium, iron, cadmium, nickel, tin, lead, hydrogen, copper, mercury, silver, platinum, gold). Ask my Chemistry teacher or any student from Ptolemy, Linnaeus, Hertz or Darwin, they know how to say the activity series.

     I was surprised to see my scores in some tests. They were high enough to make me skip a lot of work (I got a flat 80/100 in Filipino, meaning I won’t do the oral exam anymore, I got 87/100 in Chemistry, meaning I am excused for the summative exam for Monday, and I got a mere 67/100 on the Technical Writing Exam, which was ok, and 83/100 in Social Studies which was nice, but I needed a mere 2 points to miss out the Summative exam on SS! Sayang!)

     Advanced biology was a doomsday. I know for a fact that I have 5 sure mistakes and a lot of other mistakes,  so I won’t expect too much. Especially Math and Trigonometry.

     We also had some talk with the props women on how to deal with the Noli play. It was difficult to make a makeshift gate, so we had a big problem. We also gave Angela 300 for the cheesecloth and we used 260 pesos for 2 bottles of spray paint.

     I missed out on paying for the bus fare for the fourth time! I was so hungry (I didn’t have lunch) and I was so tired that I slept through the bus ride. Maybe the conductor was too busy dealing with a hefty crowd on the bus that he forgot about me. I just remembered that I haven’t paid when I was out of the bus and walking towards the jeep terminal across the road and suddenly it flashed to my memory. Sorry to the bus operators that afternoon.

     I came home dead hungry. But there was no rice, and left-over of sinigang, so I bought raw rice using the money that I had (the one for the bus fare) and cooked it. I chopped onions and garlic and opened a can of kernel corn. I boiled some ground pork and did a beef and corn sauté. There was no oyster sauce, so I couldn’t enhance the flavour, I just used some lard from the pork broth and some salt and pepper.

     Then my parents came from the supermarket with food.

     That’s the highlights for my Friday. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :7:04 pm ;

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Practices

     Hertz held practices today for Noli Me Tangere and for the Music presentation. Now the schedule was made to work for the morning practice as Noli and the afternoon for the Music.

     The day before, we all agreed to meet at 8 am and pay P20. Now if you become late between 1 and 30 minutes you’ll pay P40, and from 31 to 1 hour you’ll pay 60 and extend that part, and if you are late for 2 hours you’ll already pay a hundred pesos. That is one expensive disciplinary measure.

     That procedure was made because people tend to be late.

     And that very morning I woke up at 6:50. I then realized that I waked up way late, so I rushed the morning habits and didn’t even have a bite of breakfast. I rushed to a St. Rose bus and rode a lot of traffic to Manila. I reached Paco Park at 8:30.

     I got a debit of 40 pesos off my small wallet.

     We started practice and the props did some check for the play. Darren, Lorraine and I went out with the collected money (P1000) and canvassed for paint and other stuff.

     We went to Rob and searched for the paint, sprays, brushes and a DDR Extreme CD. We didn’t find the DDR CD though, and we just resumed the canvassing. We took about 2 hours walking and searching. The fact that I didn’t have breakfast nearly killed me that hour.

     When we returned there and finalized the Noli practice, we had lunch at Lorraine’s room in Astral with KFC as the supplement for that meal. Kathrina, Loribelle and I bought the bulk order of chicken steaks, chicken fillet burgers, mashed potatoes and 6 regular servings of Pepsi. We got an extra chicken steak, and I was too hassled to return it, so I just took the debt and told them I was going to eat it.

     I got to eat 2 chicken steaks and 1 regular mashed potato and a regular drink of Pepsi. We (Almi, Lorraine, Loribelle, Mary, Darren, Kath and I) had lunch and played DDR again. It was fun, because we played Break Down a lot. They made fun of me and Darren because they said we looked so cute dancing so synchronized.

     We then practiced in the heat the Latin American Music. We did just a few dances and we got to scoot off and played DotA. There was 7 of us playing, James, Niñowell, Bea, Lester, Joemar, Marc and me of course. We played 3 versus 4, having on my team Niñowell, James and Lester.

     I used Lightning Revenant and instigated an attack to the base. I had no strong magic skills so I cannot concentrate on killing heroes, instead I destroyed 5 towers and melted the stupid Frozen Throne. James used Goblin Techies while the others used Slayer, Chaos Knight, Lycantrophe, and 2 other heroes. I know for a fact that the other one was Mortred. The one which Lester used was a mystery to my memory.

     I went home and encountered traffic caused by an accident in the South Expressway. A cargo truck slammed into the sides of the expressway causing great deal of traffic up to Alabang.

     Now I am reading Social Studies for an exam. It concerns a lot and I think I am feeling sleepy on the thought of it.

     I had enough ATP to type this one. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :9:31 pm ;

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

The End of Assessment

     I have just restored my energy into typing an update for my blog post. This is about the end of the pesky Division Assessment Exams.

     I finished today’s test (Trigonometry, TLE, Technical Writing, Physics) in 2 hours and 40 minutes. It was way too early, so I killed time at Mrs. Enoch’s faculty room. Being the lone Values Education teacher, former first year adviser and her room being the size of a tiny storage room, she felt quite comfortable there for a small talk.

     I love going there, since killing time there always leaves me a lesson. Now the lessons are a bit complex to type, but she said by just doing what she said (all those advices and thoughts to ponder about) I could already relay what she envisions for the students.

     I spent almost 45 minutes talking about school of course and all enclosed within our batch and maybe some others too.

     It was one enlightening talk.

     After the test, we (I and the Nine Bears Group) went to Lorraine’s house and did some PS gaming. We first did DDR and made a difficulty of the slouchy dance pads, but it was fun. We also played Tekken, ate a lot of chicken from KFC and watched Yuna dancing on water. We watched the first story line of Final Fantasy X, and for the first time I saw how the game worked (because I don’t know how to play it) and I was yawning. The game was a long shot goal-type game, meaning you’ll kill a lot of days just to get to another scenario. My eyes were a bit strained.

     It was all fun, a little hypnosis and a lot of laughs.

     Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :10:16 pm ;