Yes, this is an actual scan from the FURUBA manga, and no those words on the bubble things aren't really what they're saying. I edited them to make it look as if Yuki and Kyo are actually in a RELATIONSHIP other than the innocent FILIAL kind...

Why did I do it, you ask?

Because Apparently...I'm a psycho with way too much time on my hands...

Of Malls, Whales and Bonding (Should have been posted on April 11)

Summer, thankfully I have no classes to attend so there’s free time for other more lucrative pursuits such as the advent of summer jobs. Mitch, Ann and I all headed out into the real world to look for employment, first stop is the Korean Teaching Institute. This particular endeavor unfortunately didn’t work out because we were too young. Apparently they were looking for people who were along the lines of 25-ish and above.

Then I heard from my brother about this call center in Market! Market! in Global City called Ambergris Solutions. The three of headed over there to apply. It was a grueling process that took us 12 hours to complete, but it was worth it in the end because we all passed. Whoohooo!!!!!!!

Hello, money!

Anyway, while undergoing the series of interviews, we had to wait around for hours on end and we were there inside the closed shopping mall, something I never thought I’d ever experience because felony does not really appeal to me at all. It was kind of cool in an eerie sort of way, to be inside a mall alone with your friends while it was closed.


We all got home around the wee hours of the morning. Ann’s mom and older sister picked us up from the fountain at Market! Market! where we were singing/yodeling like crazy people. Mitch slept at my house, or more accurately, she stayed in my room and we talked until around six and then I went with her to the terminal where she could ride a tricycle and begin her journey homewards.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, the summer is shaping up to be a busy one but seems worth it. We didn’t have a camera with us though which is a shame so we all resolved to bring one next time…and also a mode of entertainment in case such mind numbingly long hours were required of us once more.

For the past few weeks ever since school has let out, I have been on tenterhooks waiting anxiously for the grades to be available on line. It’s not really the usual run-of-the-mill worry over grades. I do admit I am sort of Grade Conscious but the inclination to be so is usually tempered by my indolence a.k.a I always absent myself from class. That in itself would not have been so bad except that on those days that I chose to be absent…there’s usually one quiz or other that I end up missing…

And the whole point of why it’s a bad thing boils down to the annoying fact that missed quizzes cannot be made up – according to some professors (though there are those who break this so-called educator’s maxim and for that and to them, I shall be eternally grateful).

Anyway, I was really pretty scared that I would fail a couple of my classes. After all, I was late in getting to school at the start of the second semester for two weeks or so and of course, my ever sporadic absences that unintentionally coincide with surprise quizzes…

My prelim grade for English (Speech) was very low…beyond low actually it’s the lowest grade I’ve ever got in my entire life. When I heard the professor inform me of my standing in her class, I was stunned into speechlessness (pun slightly intended) and was saved from bawling simply because I seemed to have acquired an armor of indifference or perhaps it was the lateness of my reflex reaction…I did manage to get back to my seat and sit down though. I think the direness of my situation hit me on my way home. I broke down and told my parents of this horrendously low grade I’ve gotten but I cheered myself up and thought positive things like… “I can do this…there’s still time…” though inside I was hysterical and tearing my hair out, pretty sure that there was no way in Hades that I’d be able to pass.

And then of course add to that the fact that this certain other professor is absolutely clueless when it comes to sharing information and teaching those less inclined to be fascinated by the inner workings of the human body.

Long story short, I Love God! I was able to pass all my subjects against the odds. Well, I did get an INC (Incomplete) grade in Rizal but that’s because I didn’t have the permit yet when I took the final examinations for that subject and all I have to do is talk to my professor and everything will be alright and its as if my INC never happened.

I dislike feeling unsure about the status of my academics, I hate worrying over it and I will so try to do better next time because all the anxiety drives me crazy. That’s the set goal next year – when you are only allowed one failure – to get as high a grade point average as possible and to not fail a subject. I just hope God continues to answer my prayers…

Internet Quizzes You Might Find Interesting

This post is so stolen from Mitch but oh well, i hope you don't mind Mitchelly!!!! hehehehe...

Your Vocabulary Score: A

Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary! You must be quite an erudite person.

How's Your Vocabulary?

Your Mood Ring is Magenta

Weird Creative Insipired Thriving

Mood Ring Generator

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connected to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Your Blogging Type Is Thoughtful and Considerate

You're a well liked, though underrated, blogger. You have a heart of gold, and are likely to blog for a cause. You're a peaceful blogger - no drama for you! A good listener and friend, you tend to leave thoughtful comments for others.

What's Your Blogging Personality?

Your Personality Cluster is Introverted Intuition

You are: Multilayered and complex Inspired and driven to achieve your goals A visionary with a complete life plan Intuitive enough to understand difficult problems, ideas, and people

What's Your Personality Cluster?

You Are 22 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Your Personality is 34% Addictive

You don't have an addictive personality - at least, not usually. You can indulge in vices freely, and there's little chance that you'll get hooked.

Do You Have an Addictive Personality?

You Have Low Self Esteem 36% of the Time

Generally, you feel pretty darn great about who you are, even when you mess up or fail. Occasionally, a huge setback will make you question yourself, but you pick yourself up quickly.

How is Your Self Esteem?

There...now on the Bascara and the critique paper I still have to write...

Gung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year!

Tikoy, Tikoy and more Tikoy!

My mom’s family (The Chinese Side) doesn’t really agree so strictly to the Chinese Traditions of our forebearers and so the closest I’ve ever really come to celebrating this occasion is stuffing my face with Tikoy.

Anyway, here it is again and it’s the year of the Pig/Boar! Ha. Go Kagura-chan…you’ll get Kyo yet (But I honestly would prefer it if Yuki was to get to him first).

It’s the FIRE Boar this year I think since its 2007. I’m not sure. I was born in the year of the Wooden Ox. Here’s a little tidbit about those who are born that year… (Thanks Wikipedia)

The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

Ox people need peace and quiet to work through their ideas, and when they have set their mind on something it is hard for them to be convinced otherwise. An Ox person has a very logical mind and is extremely systematic in whatever they do, even without imagination. These people speak little but are extremely intelligent. When necessary, they are articulate and eloquent.

The Ox is not extravagant, and the thought of living off credit cards or being in debt makes them nervous. The possibility of taking a serious risk could cause the Ox sleepless nights.
Ox people are truthful and sincere, and the idea of wheeling and dealing in a competitive world is distasteful to them. They are rarely driven by the prospect of financial gain. These people are always welcome because of their honesty and patience. They have many friends, who appreciate the fact that the Ox people are wary of new trends, although every now and then they can be encouraged to try something new.

It is important to remember that the Ox people are sociable and relaxed when they feel secure, but occasionally a dark cloud looms over such people and they engage all the trials of the whole world and seek solutions for them.

colors: green, yellow, black
Zodiac Location: 2nd
Ruling hours: 1am-3am
Direction: North-northeast
Season and month: Winter, January
Gemstone: Onyx
Roughly-equivalent Western sign: Capricorn
Polarity: Yin
Positive Traits: Responsible, dependable, honest, caring, honourable, industrious, practical, patient, eccentric
Negative Traits: Petty, inflexible, possessive, stubborn, critical, intolerant, materialistic

Singles Awareness Day/Month

Valentines Day is a holiday meant for couples…but why do couples need one day out of the 365 days in a year? Can’t they celebrate their love everyday? The fact that they managed to find that one person - out of the billions inhabiting the planet - who makes them feel worthwhile is cause enough to wake up every morning with a smile on their face and a celebratory attitude.

Valentines Day I think was invented by the enterprising corporate world whose sole purpose is to foist off their candies, chocolates, stuffed toys, flowers and meaningless-yet-oh-so-pretty baubles off to the unsuspecting masses hoping to make a profit…

Ah despicable and yet oh so ingenious don’t you think?

But all misanthropy aside, I think that Valentines Day shouldn’t be celebrated simply on a single day out of all the days we have in a year. Like my Rizal Prof. said when queried if he was going out that day or not…

“Why do I have to go out on Valentines Day when there’re so many days available to me in a year?”

And to those who are happy with their special someone…Congrats and many more blissful years to come.

The Quest for the Diploma

It seems to me that there’re always so many things to do for school, so many things to accomplish in such a short amount of time. I travel to and from school and the whole circuit of going there and going home takes me about three hours or so…more if I’m heinously unlucky that particular day.

LTS (For February 14 or earlier)
1. Print the pictures
2. Print the Paper work necessary
3. Submit my Reg. Form before Miss. Josue kills me
4. Ask if I have to make a new batch of test papers for the make-up day I have to attend
5. Find out if I need to make another set of Pre-Test and Post-Test and Teaching Plan Outline Thing…

Phil. History
1. Read Bascara’s Stories from the Margins
2. Try to make sense of this man’s highfaluting use of the English language and get even an iota of inkling about what the f-ck he’s talking about
3. Manage to spew out 20 or so pages of critique for this book…in a week or less

Biology
1. Read up on the female reproductive system
2. Make the presentation
3. Cover a lot of ground, the professor who teaches this subject is merciless in his questioning (asshole…)
4. Prepare for the quizzes, I bet I did a lousy job with his first few quizzes and the prelims and I’m really scared because I might fail and I seriously don’t wanna

Rizal
1. Read, because this teacher deserves more than the lackluster performance I’ve been giving. He’s passionate about the subject, but it’s just that there never seems to be enough time to catch up on my readings…darn…

Math
1. Study for the quiz on Tuesday
- Probability
- And the other stuff…I don’t know the name of the topic yet, I forgot…

(looks up at the list)

Well, I suppose it doesn’t really look like all that much, but I can think of a few things I’d rather be doing. Oh well, maybe those American kids complaining about too much homework had it exactly right. I can’t wait for third year when all the minor subjects (those that don’t have anything to do with Lit at all) get debunked from our schedule…

Just a few more weeks, here’s to hoping I pass all my subjects…
(Please God…)

Mugged by Mark

The Saturday before last, I met up with Sharyn at the UST Library and we chatted some. I had LTS that day so I dropped by in school and figured she would be there since Sharyn always goes to the library on Saturday...almost always anyway. So there we were talking, and they she got hungry and asked if I'd eaten already. I said no and so we decided to eat out.

We contacted Mark who was also in the vicinity at that time. The three of us met up outside the library and went in search of an ideal place to eat our Saturday Lunch Out.

McDonalds? Nah, we just went there the other day... KFC? Too crowded at the CARPARK, are you kidding?

Where to eat?

And then Mark thought up a great idea, why not eat at The Old Spaghetti House in Dapitan? Or is it Lacson? Geeze, I've been studying in UST for two years already and still the street names elude me...anyway, I digress. Getting back to the topic at hand, we headed out to eat at TOSH and the ambiance was quite good. The lighting was soft and it was like walking into a gentler, more genteel world. It was very nice.

Until we opened the menus and took a gander at the prizes.

Okay, so I'm not novice when it comes to splurging on food, but I was a bit surprised. I only had P200.00 on me that particular day and a glass of iced tea cost P40.00. Sharyn and my first reaction was to look up and hiss at Mark. "You're dead after this meal..."

It was a nice meal though, and we had fun and i filched a piece of chicken from Mark's plate. Actually, I'd go and eat there again just for the sake of being able to sit down in a non-crowded place, eat good food and chat with my friends.. We were supposed to go there again this week but it just never happened since there were always things to do and places we each had to go.

Oh well, anyway Mark even though you did mug us and it was quite discomfiting, its okay since we all had fun in the end.

Conversations with Ella
(this picture cracks me up...)

I haven’t really been talking regularly with Ella (not like before anyway, when we’d meet at school, gab, go home and call each other to gab some more) but we always try to keep in touch. I like talking to her because she lends a fresh perspective to my sometimes drab view of life.

We’re both paranoid but I am by far leaps and bounds worse of than she is. She trusts people and I don’t. The general consensus for me is that all people are evil until they prove me otherwise. It so cuts down on disappointments really. The funny thing is that people really don’t perceive me that way. I guess I give off an optimistic vibe…and I suppose I am an optimist too and an idealist. Well, anyway who said that you had to be one type of personality anyway? That’s what schizophrenia is there for.

I talked to Ella yesterday, she was feeling down about that student of hers (whose name is not even mentioning, that hypocritical two faced brat). If you have a complaint about a person, really you should tell the person to their face instead of just going over their heads and informing their superior…long story short Ella got a dressing down from her boss and decided to quit. She’s been thinking about it for a while now but that incident has pushed her to the breaking point and she’s done.

Two week’s notice is the norm, but she doesn’t want to go back. She asked my opinion and I told her that the right thing to do was to complete the two weeks notice thing but since I myself bailed on my last job without so much as an adieu, I don’t want to be a hypocrite and make her go back.

BURN OUT is the word and the feeling is just icky…

Starting Monday, she’ll have this UP thing going. Me and my 2-Lit friends are going to go visit her on 16 or 17 to see her booth at the UP fair. I’m really excited about it, it seems like fun and a good distraction from all the stuff going on. Plus, we all miss Ella!

A Long Time Coming

The thing is that its been such a long time since I’ve had the luxury of being able to just sit down and BLOG. Is that even the correct term? Months have passed and I’m only on my second entry. Talking with such blogging aficionados as Miguel and Ella led me to thinking that perhaps I really ought to just quite looking for the right time and make time to write.

So here I am.

Just a Recap of the recent events that had transpired in my life…not in any particular order time-wise or import…

The Gaping Hole

For the yaoi enthusiast with a very green mind, please close your drooling mouth because the heading is in no way connected to any yaoi whatsoever. Hehehe…

For starters, I think I’m becoming a chronic depressive or some such thing. I always find myself getting sad all of a sudden. I have friends and I have fun in school but there’s always this niggling feeling at the back of my mind that I’m missing something or that something bad is going to happen…I don’t know, I can’t really put it into words. It’s just bothersome and tiring to feel that way. Cheska said she sometimes felt the same way too and it was a sort of comfort to know that I am not alone in my self-perceived madness. Maybe that’s just the way things are, the way I’m made or something…

The Future Seems Bleak

Artists, writers…they live a life of insecurity and hardship and whatever glory they attain is usually posthumous…where is the fairness in that I ask you?

Van Gough was touted as a loon in his day; everyone thought he was just too intense and that the sunflower series wasn’t anything to get too excited about. Not everyone thought this but it was the general consensus at the time, I believe…and here we are now years later, applauding his genius use of colors.

Fat lot of good that does Van Gough who has long been dead and buried…

His genius was too ahead of his time, they didn’t understand that he was tapping into something that was passion itself. Just look at the starburst of colors in his sunflower series…it has never failed to get an emotion out of me. (Even a twinge is better than nothing, I’m not overly emotional anyway and a lot of the mediocre stuff leaves me cold…)

It makes me leery of the future. If someone was to tell me that my writing sucks, I would probably - insecure soul that I am - curl up in a dark place and never emerge (metaphorically speaking of course). Does that mark me as a bad writer, or was the person who told me so the one at fault because he was a bad reader and failed to grasp the intricate concepts woven into the fabric of my plot?

Look at Sylvia Plath, her husband was more famous that her during her lifetime but now, we discuss him only in connection with her (mostly).

I suppose that the ultimate reward in being in artist is serving as a conduit to a greater creativity, or to serve as a mirror to reflect society. We are the people outside the circle, we are the ones who are capable of distancing ourselves and studying the world and life through eyes of profundity. We are also capable of immersion, of being one with the subject that we have chosen.

It’s a gift…

But it doesn’t really get money in the bank, except for the rare few of course.

Oh well, such is life. Besides, the gift of self-expression is a rare one, and so is human understanding and empathy. Not to say that other people whose interest lie more on the practical side of life are less than those with our heads in the clouds, we just have to fulfill our roles in society.

That is justice. That is the good…and like Plato says, the good is that for which we always act…


Speech

My speech is about The Gentle Child in Victorian Pedophile Literature… I may write more about it later but I am just so itching to spout out the informative speech I’ve prepared for that particular topic. You know when you get so riled up and so worked up about something and then, it doesn’t happen or it gets delayed over and over again?

The excitement has long since fizzled out and I just want to get it over with. Hopefully, I’ll get a high grade (gasp, GC!) but if not, well then I did try my best… (sing-song) but I guess my best wasn’t good enough (sing-song) Sheesh but I’m stupid tonight…
There, I think that about sums up some of the things that have been going on. I’ll probably write more later…