Spring Cleaning
As anyone who knows me can tell, I'm not the un-messy type of person. That doesn't sound very good, actually, so let's just say I have, well, low standards of cleanliness and order. Hygiene is different, I'm high on that, but what I'm talking about is some general sense of structure and system and order.
I remember that in the madness that is the exams, I wouldn't mind sleeping with stacks of lecture notes and miscellaneous formula sheets lying around my bed. So many, in fact, that I have to curl myself to fit in the bed. My PC is messed up too, now with only 70MB of free space, thanks to 9GB of mp3's, a lot of camera pics and whatnot. And when my desktop gets cluttered with files once in a while, I attempt to clean them up. Thus I have folders called, "Desktopdump", "Recent", "Junk", "Recentjunk", "For Sorting". Haha they're dumpsites, really, but at least my desktop's neater now thanks to them. I think I've reached "Desktopdump3" and "Recentjunk3" already. Hahaha. But hey, at least there's an attempt to separate one mess from another. That's the first step baby.
* * *
I'm saying this 'cos I have decided to start the long overdue clean-up process, beginning with my room. This weekend is going to be a long one, thanks to the Lunar New Year, which is a big thing for the Chinese in Singapore. And so it's going to be a four-day weekend, which is quite a break I personally need.
So, finally yesterday, I got down to cleaning up my floor. That's a big thing, and I'm mighty proud to see and feel the floor smooth and squeaky clean now. I did a thorough sweeping of all the corners and difficult spots, and got down to good old mopping. Hehe it feels good on the toes. It's Mama who does the floors at home, and when she finishes, she would go to me and Kai to say she has a "gift" for us, and Kai and I would roll our eyes and say, "Yeah, clean floor". Or "clean house". Haha been taking that for granted I realize. Hello Mother if you're reading. :)
Dad also tells me and Kai to get organized. He tells us to have a place for everything, and have everything in its place. Seems simple, come to think of it, but I don't know. Haha I may be more strongly hit by the slug bug than I like to admit. I'll work on sorting my room out Dad, don't worry. :)
Anyway, room clean-up is still in progress. I'll do my laundry soon, and I have since yesterday working on the stuff in the cabinets and on shelves and tables and the bed headboard. I figure I can do my mugging better when my room's a more welcoming place.
* * *
But the thing I'd most likely love to spring clean is that murky place inside my head. It's gonna be a long break, and I would have time to accomplish many things, including my tutorials and readings, but also, I would have time to think. Think about the monsters in my head, and how to vanquish them.
No I'm not as demented as I may appear to sound, but I just want a little more fresh air to circulate in my head. I hope to get to thinking of what I want to do in my life, what I have done and what I'm currently doing in the two decades I've been around. I guess there's that part of me that's missing people too, and I don't know what to do about that. And there's that part of my head that's nagging me about the urgent work that has to be done, and I need to hush it up by doing my tasks. Basically I feel funny, and I need to get this settled somehow.
I don't blame government leaders and people of responsibility why they cannot, for the longest time, put some peace and order into the world. I myself struggle to sort my personal issues and my immediate surroundings, and it's not peanuts, I tell you.
If there's anything we all should do during this long weekend, Chinese and non-Chinese alike (including all other nationalities celebrating the Lunar New Year), it's definitely spring cleaning. On many different levels.
Just dropping by
Just dropping by
It's 3:45AM and I'm dropping by to say how incredibly exhausting this sem has been so far. And yes it's only Wednesday of Week 3.
I've been hit by another round of my random bouts of depression (OK, not-so-random), but what's new. Well, I dunno, maybe it's the compounded effect of taking 6 modules (I was even going for 7 before dropping the last one... what was I thinking), working my ass off for Hall and Choir, and I'm beginning to suspect the less-than-squeaky-clean state of my room is not doing me any good.
Oh yeah, it was clubbing for me and Ferron and Myriel and Karen & Mega and Korinna & Sundeep at this new funky clubbing place called Ministry of Sound. Four "rooms" of thumping music baby, to suit everyone's tastes. There was the Smoove (R&B and Top 40[?] music being played in some sort of cage.. most packed of the rooms), 54 (Retro! Haha never thought I'd appreciate it, but this one was a kick-ass happy place, complete with Austin Powers spirals, Eezy Dancing white dance floor tiles that light up, and 20 or so disco balls of different sizes), the White Room (I dunno what it's called but it's like one of those fashion TV places where people just lounge around while trance plays in the background) and Main Arena (where they play House music).
Anyway, my point about MOS is although it was superb, I realize that clubbing in the beginning of the sem cannot count as "clubbing therapy" as I like to call the end-of-sem post-exam clubbing. In fact, I'm just tired. But don't get me wrong -- it was loads of fun. But yeah, I'm tired.
Oh yeah, this is an excerpt of my song of the moment. Kick-ass video, too, seriously. But of course it's my song of the moment for a reason.
________
I've been thinking maybe I'm partly cloudy
Maybe I'm the chance of rain
And maybe I'm overcast
And maybe all my luck's washed down the drain
I've been thinkin' 'bout everyone, everyone you look so lonely
But when I look at the stars,
When I look at the stars,
When I look at the stars
I see someone else
When I look at the stars, the stars
I feel like myself
Stars looking at our planet,
Watching entropy and pain
And maybe startin' to wonder
How this chaos in our lives could pass as sane
- Switchfoot, "Stars"
________
As far as I know, Singapore is virtually starless on a regular day. That, or maybe I need better glasses.
Actually, I haven't been stargazing lately anyway, so I have no idea.
It's 3:45AM and I'm dropping by to say how incredibly exhausting this sem has been so far. And yes it's only Wednesday of Week 3.
I've been hit by another round of my random bouts of depression (OK, not-so-random), but what's new. Well, I dunno, maybe it's the compounded effect of taking 6 modules (I was even going for 7 before dropping the last one... what was I thinking), working my ass off for Hall and Choir, and I'm beginning to suspect the less-than-squeaky-clean state of my room is not doing me any good.
Oh yeah, it was clubbing for me and Ferron and Myriel and Karen & Mega and Korinna & Sundeep at this new funky clubbing place called Ministry of Sound. Four "rooms" of thumping music baby, to suit everyone's tastes. There was the Smoove (R&B and Top 40[?] music being played in some sort of cage.. most packed of the rooms), 54 (Retro! Haha never thought I'd appreciate it, but this one was a kick-ass happy place, complete with Austin Powers spirals, Eezy Dancing white dance floor tiles that light up, and 20 or so disco balls of different sizes), the White Room (I dunno what it's called but it's like one of those fashion TV places where people just lounge around while trance plays in the background) and Main Arena (where they play House music).
Anyway, my point about MOS is although it was superb, I realize that clubbing in the beginning of the sem cannot count as "clubbing therapy" as I like to call the end-of-sem post-exam clubbing. In fact, I'm just tired. But don't get me wrong -- it was loads of fun. But yeah, I'm tired.
Oh yeah, this is an excerpt of my song of the moment. Kick-ass video, too, seriously. But of course it's my song of the moment for a reason.
________
I've been thinking maybe I'm partly cloudy
Maybe I'm the chance of rain
And maybe I'm overcast
And maybe all my luck's washed down the drain
I've been thinkin' 'bout everyone, everyone you look so lonely
But when I look at the stars,
When I look at the stars,
When I look at the stars
I see someone else
When I look at the stars, the stars
I feel like myself
Stars looking at our planet,
Watching entropy and pain
And maybe startin' to wonder
How this chaos in our lives could pass as sane
- Switchfoot, "Stars"
________
As far as I know, Singapore is virtually starless on a regular day. That, or maybe I need better glasses.
Actually, I haven't been stargazing lately anyway, so I have no idea.
Smorgasbord
Smorgasbord
Yeah man, another update. About time too eh?
The current status of my head is like that of my room: a terrible mess. I've been oh-so-slowly trying to clear up my room (and there's progress, believe it or not), but as for the mess in my head, I guess it would do me good to vanquish some mind monsters by blogging them all out. :)
* * *
Speaking of my head, I've just had the worst headache of my life lately. In the plane too, of all places. So after a domestic flight earlier during the day, there I was in the Jetstar Asia plane, a good two and a half hours into the flight, when the headache hit me. Wah man, it stung like hell. Like my the pressure in the cabin was pushing my skull inward in all directions to squeeze in my brain. And my brain, being the smart thingy that it is, naturally responded by countering the pressure. Bad for Joshie, though, and he got this sick feeling of his head about to burst.
Then later, as the pilot's voice was heard on the speakers announcing our descent to Singapore, the headache turned to this piercing sensation right smack in the middle of my head. But nope, it wasn't as simple as it was, because soon it was spreading over my head like I dunno, oil or shampoo being poured over me. Seriously, I could even sense the direction of the headache as it creeped from the front to the back to the sides and finally circling my head. That bad, really. It was so bad in fact, that I did Our Father Hail Mary Glory Be until the plane touched down. I wouldn't have been surprised if I found my skull bleeding actually, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Phew.
Oh please Lord don't let it please be migraine. Dad and my sister Kai have it, and for many years I have been thankfully spared, and oh no I don't wish to suffer like them, 'cos I can tell from my sister's headaches that migraine hurts BAD.
I've had a bad headache again over the weekend, with considerably less intensity, but hopefully that's just due to fatigue.
* * *
Speaking of my sister, haha I've recently been posting our wacky pics, just me and her, as my display pic on MSN. Haha dunno what got into me and I posted them, but pretty cute really. I even posted one of the pics as my profile pic on Friendster. Hehe. And oh yeah, I've rediscovered Friendster! Haha it's been a long time baby. And ooh, found nice surprises in my inbox over the weekend. :)
Now my display pic is of me and Karen at Matina Town Square on the eve of her 20th birthday in December. Pretty cute too! Karen and Jasper have pretty potentially scandalous pics too of them. Hehe that was a nice dinner with Karen and Jay, really... too bad we morons forgot to take any picture of the three of us together!
Hmm.. Maybe I should post pics here sometime.
* * *
Oh yeah, I've been thinking I haven't really given justice to significant events that happened to me lately. Justice in terms of chronicling them at least. Haha maybe I should dump all my pics in Flickr or some photo-sharing service and display them all here. I've got dozens of super pics of NUS Choir in Shah Alam, and my December holiday pics in Davao, and heck, even the Czech Republic pics in June! Haha I'm such a sloth.
* * *
I never got around to talk about my new modules this sem much, much less about the tada, grades I got last sem. Haha. I don't intend to post them grades here for well, not-so-secret reasons, but suffice it to say that they were strange.
Strange because the module I didn't really pay much attention to turned out to be an A, and the core modules I worked my ass off for, turned out blah. I was like, "Huh?" when the grades screen flashed. An easy A, and hard-fought B's. Well, thank God for the A! My grades weren't bad really.. I just knew I could've done better. And I could have avoided this particularly BAD grade.. from what else, that Calculus module I was ranting about last sem. And since it can be said anyway, I got this A from my lone English module last sem, the one about linguistics. I can't help but notice that once again, my good grades come courtesy of my English modules, in contrast with my Statistics modules. But that's all right, my Stats modules aren't too bad. :)
This sem, though, it's gonna be a pumped up sem for me, in terms of module intensity. I missed EN2113 Reading Film and Cultural Texts because of the outrageous bid points, so in place I'm taking EL2101 Structure of Sentences and Meanings. Yep linguistics again, but please please let there be essays this sem!
I'm taking, surprise surprise, MA1104 Multivariable Calculus! Haha I thought I was done with Calculus modules but no sir, I need this module to take Financial Mathematics next semester and the one after that. I hope this is a good decision though, taking Financial Mathematics. I hope that my Financial Mathematics will complement nicely my Business Minor. :)
What else, oh yeah, the killer Statistics core modules! ST3131 Regression Analysis and ST3234 Actuarial Statistics. These modules are confirmed hardcore, and I will need intensive and extensive mugging time for them. But don't they sound good? Hehe Actuarial Stats is tough, from the looks of it, but it's more fun than the other Stats modules, 'cos we now talk about money and investment and insurance.. actual tangible moolah stuff. Haha pretty cool.
And then the Business modules of course. I'm doing FNA1002 Financial Accounting and DSC2006 Operations Management. Financial Accounting is ok lah, seems the fun technical dorky stuff, but that's essential for making money! Operations Management is being taught by this nice charismatic lecturer, who one can tell is rather good. At least he's head of some great big NUS projects in the Business school and some soon-to-come NUS campus to be built in China. Haha I love NUS. Anyway, I don't really feel for Operations Management yet, well, partly maybe because I don't know anyone taking the module with me (except Dan Sim from KR but he's with his friends), and hmph, I spent a good fortune of points for this module that I could have very well spent to get my film module! Hehe no regrets of course.
* * *
I could rant on about the stuff that's been keeping me busy lately, including covering the IHG Volleyball games of KR Hall, and consequently developing supreme respect for sportswriters (I know Newswriting, which is supposed to be related, but sportswriting is a different ball game I daresay), and the resumption of NUS Choir and KR activities, but nah, I think this entry has been lengthy enough. And no pics too! Haha once I get some free disk space and more free time I promise!
Anyway, life is good and although a lot of work is waiting to be done, I'm just taking it slowly, one bite at a time. Cheers!
Yeah man, another update. About time too eh?
The current status of my head is like that of my room: a terrible mess. I've been oh-so-slowly trying to clear up my room (and there's progress, believe it or not), but as for the mess in my head, I guess it would do me good to vanquish some mind monsters by blogging them all out. :)
* * *
Speaking of my head, I've just had the worst headache of my life lately. In the plane too, of all places. So after a domestic flight earlier during the day, there I was in the Jetstar Asia plane, a good two and a half hours into the flight, when the headache hit me. Wah man, it stung like hell. Like my the pressure in the cabin was pushing my skull inward in all directions to squeeze in my brain. And my brain, being the smart thingy that it is, naturally responded by countering the pressure. Bad for Joshie, though, and he got this sick feeling of his head about to burst.
Then later, as the pilot's voice was heard on the speakers announcing our descent to Singapore, the headache turned to this piercing sensation right smack in the middle of my head. But nope, it wasn't as simple as it was, because soon it was spreading over my head like I dunno, oil or shampoo being poured over me. Seriously, I could even sense the direction of the headache as it creeped from the front to the back to the sides and finally circling my head. That bad, really. It was so bad in fact, that I did Our Father Hail Mary Glory Be until the plane touched down. I wouldn't have been surprised if I found my skull bleeding actually, but thankfully that wasn't the case. Phew.
Oh please Lord don't let it please be migraine. Dad and my sister Kai have it, and for many years I have been thankfully spared, and oh no I don't wish to suffer like them, 'cos I can tell from my sister's headaches that migraine hurts BAD.
I've had a bad headache again over the weekend, with considerably less intensity, but hopefully that's just due to fatigue.
* * *
Speaking of my sister, haha I've recently been posting our wacky pics, just me and her, as my display pic on MSN. Haha dunno what got into me and I posted them, but pretty cute really. I even posted one of the pics as my profile pic on Friendster. Hehe. And oh yeah, I've rediscovered Friendster! Haha it's been a long time baby. And ooh, found nice surprises in my inbox over the weekend. :)
Now my display pic is of me and Karen at Matina Town Square on the eve of her 20th birthday in December. Pretty cute too! Karen and Jasper have pretty potentially scandalous pics too of them. Hehe that was a nice dinner with Karen and Jay, really... too bad we morons forgot to take any picture of the three of us together!
Hmm.. Maybe I should post pics here sometime.
* * *
Oh yeah, I've been thinking I haven't really given justice to significant events that happened to me lately. Justice in terms of chronicling them at least. Haha maybe I should dump all my pics in Flickr or some photo-sharing service and display them all here. I've got dozens of super pics of NUS Choir in Shah Alam, and my December holiday pics in Davao, and heck, even the Czech Republic pics in June! Haha I'm such a sloth.
* * *
I never got around to talk about my new modules this sem much, much less about the tada, grades I got last sem. Haha. I don't intend to post them grades here for well, not-so-secret reasons, but suffice it to say that they were strange.
Strange because the module I didn't really pay much attention to turned out to be an A, and the core modules I worked my ass off for, turned out blah. I was like, "Huh?" when the grades screen flashed. An easy A, and hard-fought B's. Well, thank God for the A! My grades weren't bad really.. I just knew I could've done better. And I could have avoided this particularly BAD grade.. from what else, that Calculus module I was ranting about last sem. And since it can be said anyway, I got this A from my lone English module last sem, the one about linguistics. I can't help but notice that once again, my good grades come courtesy of my English modules, in contrast with my Statistics modules. But that's all right, my Stats modules aren't too bad. :)
This sem, though, it's gonna be a pumped up sem for me, in terms of module intensity. I missed EN2113 Reading Film and Cultural Texts because of the outrageous bid points, so in place I'm taking EL2101 Structure of Sentences and Meanings. Yep linguistics again, but please please let there be essays this sem!
I'm taking, surprise surprise, MA1104 Multivariable Calculus! Haha I thought I was done with Calculus modules but no sir, I need this module to take Financial Mathematics next semester and the one after that. I hope this is a good decision though, taking Financial Mathematics. I hope that my Financial Mathematics will complement nicely my Business Minor. :)
What else, oh yeah, the killer Statistics core modules! ST3131 Regression Analysis and ST3234 Actuarial Statistics. These modules are confirmed hardcore, and I will need intensive and extensive mugging time for them. But don't they sound good? Hehe Actuarial Stats is tough, from the looks of it, but it's more fun than the other Stats modules, 'cos we now talk about money and investment and insurance.. actual tangible moolah stuff. Haha pretty cool.
And then the Business modules of course. I'm doing FNA1002 Financial Accounting and DSC2006 Operations Management. Financial Accounting is ok lah, seems the fun technical dorky stuff, but that's essential for making money! Operations Management is being taught by this nice charismatic lecturer, who one can tell is rather good. At least he's head of some great big NUS projects in the Business school and some soon-to-come NUS campus to be built in China. Haha I love NUS. Anyway, I don't really feel for Operations Management yet, well, partly maybe because I don't know anyone taking the module with me (except Dan Sim from KR but he's with his friends), and hmph, I spent a good fortune of points for this module that I could have very well spent to get my film module! Hehe no regrets of course.
* * *
I could rant on about the stuff that's been keeping me busy lately, including covering the IHG Volleyball games of KR Hall, and consequently developing supreme respect for sportswriters (I know Newswriting, which is supposed to be related, but sportswriting is a different ball game I daresay), and the resumption of NUS Choir and KR activities, but nah, I think this entry has been lengthy enough. And no pics too! Haha once I get some free disk space and more free time I promise!
Anyway, life is good and although a lot of work is waiting to be done, I'm just taking it slowly, one bite at a time. Cheers!
Too Busy Too Soon
Too Busy Too Soon
Yep, I'm here in rainy Singapore already. Lots to blog about, but I unfortunately cannot chronicle them events all right now because I'm still currently stunned from the work that I've suddenly been plunged into. Well, that's what I get for coming to school on Wednesday afternoon, when classes begin on Monday.
Anyway, it's not too bad, although the rainy weather is dampening my spirits. Rainy days are like sad movies. They depress the shit out of me. Hmph. Must resist the weather!
But really, I'm okay. Room clean-up and Luggage unpacking are still in progress, I'm getting into the groove of the new semester (although I really could not get the film module I so wanted :( ) , and met a number of Singapore buddies already, Pinoys and hallmates and choirmates and classmates. So yep, I'm okay.
Dunno what's wrong with Chikka though. Or my Globe SIM. Hmm. Maybe I should really just call home soon. Goodnight world.
Yep, I'm here in rainy Singapore already. Lots to blog about, but I unfortunately cannot chronicle them events all right now because I'm still currently stunned from the work that I've suddenly been plunged into. Well, that's what I get for coming to school on Wednesday afternoon, when classes begin on Monday.
Anyway, it's not too bad, although the rainy weather is dampening my spirits. Rainy days are like sad movies. They depress the shit out of me. Hmph. Must resist the weather!
But really, I'm okay. Room clean-up and Luggage unpacking are still in progress, I'm getting into the groove of the new semester (although I really could not get the film module I so wanted :( ) , and met a number of Singapore buddies already, Pinoys and hallmates and choirmates and classmates. So yep, I'm okay.
Dunno what's wrong with Chikka though. Or my Globe SIM. Hmm. Maybe I should really just call home soon. Goodnight world.
Six Minutes
Six Minutes
Oops, it's five, not six, minutes now according to this tiny counter on my PC screen here in this internet cafe.
Five minutes left before I'm booted out of the cafe. I don't mind much; lunch awaits me at Lola's. Ho hum. How to kill 5 minutes?
3 minutes. Haha, time's a wasting really.
Well, I guess time's running out rather quickly. SO what really do I wanna say?
Hmm.. well, for one, I hope I get my EN2113 Reading Film and Cultural Texts module. I'm 750 points short as of Round 3A. Hmph. Next round hopefully.
And yeah, I'm leaving for Singapore on Wednesday already. Hmm. That should arouse some emotion, to be sure, but I'm not sure what exactly is brewing in my system right about now.
OK, gotta go! One minute to publish this post! Bye!
Oops, it's five, not six, minutes now according to this tiny counter on my PC screen here in this internet cafe.
Five minutes left before I'm booted out of the cafe. I don't mind much; lunch awaits me at Lola's. Ho hum. How to kill 5 minutes?
3 minutes. Haha, time's a wasting really.
Well, I guess time's running out rather quickly. SO what really do I wanna say?
Hmm.. well, for one, I hope I get my EN2113 Reading Film and Cultural Texts module. I'm 750 points short as of Round 3A. Hmph. Next round hopefully.
And yeah, I'm leaving for Singapore on Wednesday already. Hmm. That should arouse some emotion, to be sure, but I'm not sure what exactly is brewing in my system right about now.
OK, gotta go! One minute to publish this post! Bye!
Back!
Back!
I can remember some other ancient post I made with the same unimaginative title but what the heck, it's been way too long, and although the thought of my blog being old and rotting and moldy was nagging me the entire Christmas break, nah, the laziness got the better of me, but tada, now I'm back. *applause*
Now now, where does a lazy blogger begin when there's three past weeks of blogworthy events waiting to be chronicled? Yawn. I think I'm gonna be good to myself and spare me the trouble. BUT, maybe I'll just give a rough and chop-chop description of what on earth has been keeping me busy the past weeks.
My arrival home in the Philippines was a bit bumpy, what with a sweet-talking lousy taxi driver capping off a sleepless, neck-breaking travel experience that began with a bus ride from Malaysia, an uncomfy night at the airport by my lonesome, two flights, and two heavy bags (on top of the laptop bag slung across my chest) whose straps broke conveniently when I realised I had to walk 1KM from one building of the NAIA airport to another. I was so cranky that I was a bit irritated at my mom, who was alone with me at home when I arrived.
But nonetheless, I was home, and that's always a good thing. My Dad and sister arrived the next day (Dad from a trip to Marbel, South Cotabato, my sister from Los Baños) and it was good to fill the Sorongon household once more. My sister was rushing to the TV as soon as she stepped into the door. "TV! TV!" she said as if in a trance. Well, I can't blame her. Cable TV rocks man.
* * *
Christmas was, for lack of better words, strange. It was less brighter than the previous years, for several reasons. I guess that goes for most every other Filipino household, what with the "exciting" political and socio-economic events of the year. Personally, it was gloomier for a number of reasons, like seeing my ninang (godmother) suddenly sick, my cousins not coming over due to reasons, our high school batch outing not quite being a "batch" outing, both my lolas (grannies) not being in the best of conditions, and some others. My cousins, Patricia and Niño, came over to my Lola's place and it was great to have them around, but yeah, we commented how our big cousins' reunion, with a studio picture as a symbol, was getting increasingly difficult to pull off, especially now that some of my cousins have just graduated and are now chained by their ahem, careers.
But well, Christmas is Christmas, and Christmas at home is just dandy. And thus, it was still the happy and warm and fuzzy event it was meant to be. I've made a mental note of the things I want to do before I turn twenty (because really, 20 is a BIG year and people who cross over are O-L-D, just ask Karen to be sure haha), and one of them is to complete the traditional Filipino dawn masses, called misa de gallo or simbang gabi. They go on for 9 mornings, from the 16th to the 24th of December at the oddest of hours 4AM. And I completed them! Haha, and aside from the few times when I was too sleepy to listen to the homily, I actually listened and put to heart what the priest said. Even that one lousy homily of this priest I couldn't forget, even his two lame totally-unChristmas jokes. Anyway, point is, I finished the simbang gabi set (one of the days we went to church at night though, hope it still counts), and that reportedly entitles me to a wish that's sure to be granted. I haven't thought of one yet, but never mind. I did it before I turned twenty, and that's a big thing already. Definitely a highlight of this year's X'mas season.
* * *
So what else have happened? Dunno, time seems to always keep me off-guard. Speaking of time, I think I'm running out of it in my use of this PC in this internet cafe, so tada, I bid you farewell, dear bloggie, and whoever else is reading this post. Oh, I'm in Kidapawan City, btw, here to spend some time with my other Lola. Hehe. Will be back in Davao tomorrow afternoon.
Maybe I'll rant more in my next post. Now for some Jollibee Chickenjoy to bring home to Lola! Happy new year!
I can remember some other ancient post I made with the same unimaginative title but what the heck, it's been way too long, and although the thought of my blog being old and rotting and moldy was nagging me the entire Christmas break, nah, the laziness got the better of me, but tada, now I'm back. *applause*
Now now, where does a lazy blogger begin when there's three past weeks of blogworthy events waiting to be chronicled? Yawn. I think I'm gonna be good to myself and spare me the trouble. BUT, maybe I'll just give a rough and chop-chop description of what on earth has been keeping me busy the past weeks.
My arrival home in the Philippines was a bit bumpy, what with a sweet-talking lousy taxi driver capping off a sleepless, neck-breaking travel experience that began with a bus ride from Malaysia, an uncomfy night at the airport by my lonesome, two flights, and two heavy bags (on top of the laptop bag slung across my chest) whose straps broke conveniently when I realised I had to walk 1KM from one building of the NAIA airport to another. I was so cranky that I was a bit irritated at my mom, who was alone with me at home when I arrived.
But nonetheless, I was home, and that's always a good thing. My Dad and sister arrived the next day (Dad from a trip to Marbel, South Cotabato, my sister from Los Baños) and it was good to fill the Sorongon household once more. My sister was rushing to the TV as soon as she stepped into the door. "TV! TV!" she said as if in a trance. Well, I can't blame her. Cable TV rocks man.
* * *
Christmas was, for lack of better words, strange. It was less brighter than the previous years, for several reasons. I guess that goes for most every other Filipino household, what with the "exciting" political and socio-economic events of the year. Personally, it was gloomier for a number of reasons, like seeing my ninang (godmother) suddenly sick, my cousins not coming over due to reasons, our high school batch outing not quite being a "batch" outing, both my lolas (grannies) not being in the best of conditions, and some others. My cousins, Patricia and Niño, came over to my Lola's place and it was great to have them around, but yeah, we commented how our big cousins' reunion, with a studio picture as a symbol, was getting increasingly difficult to pull off, especially now that some of my cousins have just graduated and are now chained by their ahem, careers.
But well, Christmas is Christmas, and Christmas at home is just dandy. And thus, it was still the happy and warm and fuzzy event it was meant to be. I've made a mental note of the things I want to do before I turn twenty (because really, 20 is a BIG year and people who cross over are O-L-D, just ask Karen to be sure haha), and one of them is to complete the traditional Filipino dawn masses, called misa de gallo or simbang gabi. They go on for 9 mornings, from the 16th to the 24th of December at the oddest of hours 4AM. And I completed them! Haha, and aside from the few times when I was too sleepy to listen to the homily, I actually listened and put to heart what the priest said. Even that one lousy homily of this priest I couldn't forget, even his two lame totally-unChristmas jokes. Anyway, point is, I finished the simbang gabi set (one of the days we went to church at night though, hope it still counts), and that reportedly entitles me to a wish that's sure to be granted. I haven't thought of one yet, but never mind. I did it before I turned twenty, and that's a big thing already. Definitely a highlight of this year's X'mas season.
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So what else have happened? Dunno, time seems to always keep me off-guard. Speaking of time, I think I'm running out of it in my use of this PC in this internet cafe, so tada, I bid you farewell, dear bloggie, and whoever else is reading this post. Oh, I'm in Kidapawan City, btw, here to spend some time with my other Lola. Hehe. Will be back in Davao tomorrow afternoon.
Maybe I'll rant more in my next post. Now for some Jollibee Chickenjoy to bring home to Lola! Happy new year!
