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

Monday, May 15, 2006

Long Days

For the past few days I have been exhausting myself with a lot of things to do. It’s tiring. You see… Boredom and activities never mix equally. It’s either usually your world is boring or tiring. Since Internet ran out again as usual, the posts stacked here and have been typing this for a lot of days. It seems to be the recollection of what I have been or not doing.

I’m a bit tired.

Monday - I went to the review in which I was nearly late. Well, technically, I was 15 minutes late, but the teacher wasn’t there and they didn’t give any buff in particular, except for the part where a woman harassed me into showing my ID. I got the card which would identify me as Student 1007.

Chemistry was dealt with a new happy-go-lucky teacher. She was Ms. Karen, and she taught us the galvanic cell and its reaction.

Geometry was with Ms. Rose, who did not have much to say because she was more particular with algebra than geometry.

Bea, Anna, Carlos, Philippe and I went to Padre Faura to deal with some matters. I had my module photocopied for my cousin, Bea and Anna went to get a UP form, Carlos had his picture taken, and we ate lunch at KFC.

We went to Masci to submit the forms for the UPCAT. I didn’t bring my form, so Anna, Carlos and Philippe submitted theirs. Bea just got hers, so we looked up to what we were about to fill up.

After leaving the gates, Bea and Anna went home. The rest went to Badminton City for some power play.

We met Niño there at Badminton City, dressed, heated (by the scorching microwave court) and excited. Carlos and I tried power play, but our shots were a bit soft. When we joined Philippe and Niño for some doubles I experienced the speed and the strength of their shots.

We played for a short while since it was already 2 in the afternoon when we got here. While in the shower room Niño gave me a CD. It was about Mendel (which totally removes me from the settlement) however the CD cover had my name in it (with the wrong but cute spelling). Niño told me I was there. I felt a bit uneasy, but I still thanked him for that.

We ate at Chowking afterwards. Carlos had a petite halo-halo without the ice cream, Philippe had the same order with a scoop of ube ice cream, I had a large serving of halo-halo (with two strands of macapuno) and Niño had a half-dozen halo-halo, a bowl of noodles and milk tea which was only liked by my and Carlos’ tastebuds. Philippe and Niño discerned the taste.

Carlos left already while we were at Quantum. We played 3 songs at Para Para. We also played DDR. I played 10 songs, Philippe had 9 and Niño had 1. At last we have tried So Deep with its tone that’s a bit melancholic and funky.

We all parted ways afterwards. I had difficulty finding a bus, and I rode an air-conditioned one. I met some few people in our village that recognized me. I didn’t know them that much. But I fell asleep and my bus fare was taken care of. I thanked them and got into different jeeps on our way home.
To a darker home…

The same thing happened again - a black-out that affected a series of interlaced villages which included the one where I live. I reached home with my brothers setting up dinner in our cool windy area upstairs.

We had a nice dinner, they got a few drinks, and I declined some offers, and waited in the dark, cool area where we sat. Then the electricity came back. It was nearing 10 pm, and I needed to watch some TV badly.

Tuesday - I went to Cavite for my radiography. I reached my uncle’s clinic at 10 while my sister Ate Yaz reached 10:30 because of snail-pace traffic. We went to another dental clinic which my uncle referred to for our x-rays. It was termed a panoramic x-ray, and we had to be standing up, bite a tube, align ourselves in a straight line and freeze all unnecessary movements. Then, the machine would whirl its panels with a slow turn.

Done, and it only takes 20 minutes for the radiography plates’ exposures to materialize.

Ate and I went to a series of banks. She was looking for a suitable bank for a dollar account for her son. We went to MetroBank, the Bank of the Philippine Islands and to Union Bank. After taking down the requirements we went to retrieve our radiographs and saw our teeth and jaw bones, panoramic style.

I saw mine - The only problem was my four front teeth at my upper jaw which were spaced a little. My sister had a worse-case scenario - horizontal wisdom teeth. She would undergo a minor surgery and my uncle had prescribed a drug named Hemostan, which I think was an anticoagulant. I forgot to ask.

We had lunch at Gemmae’s (a popular foodshop in Zapote and a personal favourite eating destination) with my cousin Ate Angie and talked for a while with the usual viands and my plate overflowing with rice. The carbs… yikes!

We all drifted ways, Ate Angie returning to the clinic, Ate Yaz meeting my cousin Heart for their trip to SM South Mall to check on insurance while I went to my cousins’ Jet, Dave and Reji for a few hours to spare.

I reached their house and found Darwin with them, doing a movie marathon. Jet and I tried to look for a shop which yielded some Ragna cards so that I could help him in the game. We didn’t find some though, so we just played DotA for an hour. We returned with a plastic full of turon (it contained 10 pieces of caramelized flour wrap with sliced bananas with strips of jackfruit fried golden caramel brown in deep oil… you get the idea…) and ate the latter for snacks.

After staying a bit longer, I left and did a long journey home. One tricycle ride from their house to the village entrance, a jeep ride from the village entrance to Camella Springville van terminal, a van ride from Cavite to Alabang via Daang Hari, another jeep ride from Alabang to Soldier’s Hills (a village connected to the one where I live), another tricycle ride from the entrance to a certain block and finished with a walk home.

I watched Curious Play’s last episode and had some dinner. Add some more TV, I guess.

Wednesday - I did a “half” BLEACH marathon. Yes, I watched episodes 12 to 24 (all the things I missed after Reji did the whole DVD last Sunday, however I watched the first 12 episodes with him) and found all the coolest things about BLEACH. I’m a BLEACH fan now! \m/ ^___^ \m/

I suddenly remembered. My module!!! Not a thing about Biology and Reading Comprehension had been touched by the tip of my pencil by the existing moment. I timed myself for each drill. I did Reading Comprehension first (80 items, timed 50 minutes) and Biology (60 items, timed 30 minutes).

Then the hands of the clock landed on the position that told me of what was happening.

6:00 (that’s TV period!!!!)

I finished the drills hastily, doing Reading Comprehension in 29 minutes and Biology in 15 minutes, with no consultations whatsoever to any references that relate to the drills.

Must turn on the TV - the first episode of Full Metal Alchemist was showing in Animax.. It was so cool!!! Nice one for Animax! The dub was great and the story unfolds in a hurry. I also watched Detective Conan. Unluckily I didn’t solve the crime (Yoruichi Festival Murder Case). Conan did. ^_^

I read (again) Biology by Addison-Wesley which was battered into a trite, however still readable. I did not last long though. I got to have some sleep - tomorrow would be review day.

Before the lethargy, I did a three-way phone conversation. I was talking to Thea from an extension landline in front of the PC when Philippe called through the cordless extension of another landline, located at the living room. I had two phones in each ear, on my right was Thea on the line and on the left was Philippe. (See the relationship? ^_________^) It was confusing - and we didn’t last long. I had my final word with Thea and talked to Philippe about a skating plan.

Thea got my current cell phone number and sent P15 pesos to start a 24-hour unlimited text feature so that we could communicate like there was no tomorrow. After a lot of messages sent into the wave haywire, we got to sleep.

Thursday - Review session. I had a bowl of macaroni soup for breakfast and about a glass of water before I headed for Wesleyan College. I got to ride a St. Rose bus and got a lucky seat. It was traffic and the first lapse of the highway (from the Alabang tollgate to the Skyway entrance) and then the trip accelerated due to the presence of the Skyway.

Nearly late - I reached the building 8:10. Room 303 had no teacher yet, and I got to have small talk with Blessie before Ms. Frisco came in.

Then Ms. Tina’s head appeared on the door. Ms. Frisco left and Ms. Tina resided.
Who even thought Biology would be our first subject? Ok, Reading Comprehension with Ms. Tina was a good one. We discussed literature and basic methods of context clues. We then had a spelling bee. These were the words: accidentally, acquaintance, cemetery, conscious, privilege, embarrass, occasionally, dissatisfied, pronunciation and mileage. I made an embarrassing mistake - I spelled embarrass as “embarass”. IT WAS SO EMBARRASSING!!!! :p

We got some chocolate candy for prizes. We checked the module. I got 64/80. Well, that’s worth it.

It maybe the last time we would meet Ms. Tina. She’s one of the best teachers we had on the review. She said something promising though. That would be something only she and the students of Room 303 could confide.

When it was time to erase the board (with the errata scribbled all over), I erased almost everything and left my “embarass” and Blessie’s “occassionally” and stood in front of the whiteboard.

“Blessie, kaninong kahihiyan ang gusto mong matira sa board???”

I got a lot of laughs and I erased the most embarrassing moments I had for the review.

Break time became the matter of who’s going to eat the Tortillos (the prize Ms. Tina gave for the winning group) and the red bag was passed around like it was baneful. It ended in Enri’s bag. ^__^

Biology was the killer. Mr. Magsino kept a stale strict enforcement of knowledge which no one enjoyed. He even tackled the fact that Ms. Tina’s game disturbed his classes. He spoke peevishly (as Sir Vlad would describe later on) and he had an unfriendly aura that emanates from him like evaporating sweat.

He was a good biology teacher all right - but his… approach was so sinister that the silence of the room was complementary to his presence. The only audible sounds were his voice and the recitations.

After his spite left the room (the words are starting to become harsh…), Sir Vlad did his apparition as usual with the assignment and the description of Mr. Magsino’s mandible when he talks (mouth seems too impolite however lips seem too kind to use, let’s stick with mandible…) I got 34/60 in the module.

Philippe and I went to Wendy’s at PGH (we intended to go to Masci, but we had lunch first instead). I ate a side salad while Philippe had a hamburger. Talk about small amounts of food. Niño came after we were finished eating, and we left for SM Southmall.

After one bumpy ride at the bus, encountering lesser traffic than usual, we entered SM Southmall and proceeded to the rink.

OK… Skating time! Niño just kept his position in the rink while Philippe and I moved, spun and glided a lot. Philippe practiced cross glides backwards while I did a lot of studying of different footwork in the rink.

After an hour, we left the rink and tried the all-new degraded (or downgraded) Dance Dance Revolution. The songs were limited to Witch Doctor, Cowgirl, So Deep and Max 300 (and few songs which I couldn’t remember) and the Freeze system was difficult because the sensors had lost their sensitivity.

We also tried another game in which it uses 3 floor panels and 2 hand detectors for specific dances. Afterwards Niño and Philippe played billiards. I watched a few games and then left.

~

This post is way long. Sorry for the inconvenience. ^___^

Boring or not, life’s got to be dealt with, sooner or later, or pretty much now. Ciao~

my mind fleeted at :8:22 pm ;