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DISCOVERY CHANNEL. 

November 6.

  9 PM. 

iGenius. 

Let us bask in the legend that is Steve Jobs.

Its hosted by the guys from Mythbusters. Do not dare look for reasons why.

Where am I?

In connection with the recent blog name change, this post will summarize a short-lived existence in a  bound area on earth which is Krua Thai, a Thai restaurant in Iloilo, where I ate lunch today as part of the reunion rites I celebrated with two friends. 

These photos have been desperately salvaged by iPhoto Enhance because I suck at setting the camera right. The lighting was poor.

The food wasn’t phenomenal. Us ending up in that place was a product of circumstance - and the odds of us coming back will also be by circumstance. The price to flavor ratio was fine. It was worth it but its situated in the small night-life district of the city. At noon, the place looks like a ghost town. Not a good feeling walking around that place because I definitely had a hard time muting the visions of zombies crawling out to the streets.

What a good day until we watched Puss in Boots (not in 3D, my visual capabilities find only the lack of comfort in 3D cinema and no significant play of added dimension). The movie was personally a flop. Maybe, a cat wearing leather boots can only expect the surity of success from YouTube. I had high expectations. Maybe I was just too old for the movie, but... but... (dramatic ending right there)



PS: There is a sudden drop in blog stats. I hope changing the blog URL wasn't entirely a stupid idea!

WHEREAREYOULEO.BLOGSPOT.COM

Will be changing this blog's URL to WHEREAREYOULEO.BLOGSPOT.COM because I realized that claiming I live in my own world is selfish and worrying. This time around, I will assume I exist as a singular cluster of matter that share a bound amount of volume (given I do not expand).

That way I become more of an occupant, a spectator and a participant of the system of the world rather than an onlooker, watching the world take strides towards its end. Yehey. This sounds more positive!

A Coelho and Skinny

I spent last night reading my first ever Paulo Coelho book.

 

Its The Alchemist. (The picture is a link to GoodReads.com, a website for readers. I'm new to the system and so far, I'm having fun with it.)

I have long been wanting to read a Coelho book. During high school, I remember a lot of batchmates were all over his books and the cover of Brida was a very beautiful photo. But this impulse fell under the list of wants I never get to do immediately. So months after....

I bought the book after buying "The Portrait of an Unkown Woman" which I have already started reading but decided to restart from page 1 again soon.

I didn't like it as much as I expected to [The Alchemist]. I don't know why but I think Coelho's beliefs just don't coincide with mine. It doesn't even contradict my beliefs. Its just he's completely on a different page. I was really disappointed that I didn't like the book. It wasn't boring and draggy so I finished it immediately. But I definitely do not regret reading it. If we had the same principles, I swear I'd be happier. But we don't. Period.

I'm now reading Skinny by Ibi Kaslik, a book owned by this cafe here in Iloilo. They have bookshelves for customers to explore but the catch is you can't take the books out of the property and they don't sell them. This sucks so bad because I have been wanting my own copy for a long time.

PS: I wrote this blog post weeks ago. I couldn't stand it so I asked them if I could bring Skinny home. They said no. I swore on my life, they said yes. I got to finish the book. 

Let's read some more.

In Starbucks, getting a share of decent internet we unfortunately do not have at home.

I just finished reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. I started last night, after a short day spent with my amazing high school friends. I just couldn't stop until around 1:30 AM when my mom started worrying. Extra eye bags have never left since college finals week.

The book is really good. Its a boy in the time where growth is the most ravenous. Since Catcher in the Rye, I discovered I had fondness for these stories. My own growing up story has been wild so far  which makes these books more and more relatable. The details are the best parts.

I'm still midway through with Gaiman's Neverwhere. I'm struggling because I recently realized that novels based on real life are far more interesting for me than fantasy - which has never been the case before (well, save The Catcher in the Rye)!

I now have a copy of The Portrait of an Unknown Woman, a rather large book with a lot of pages. After several minutes of awkwardly standing in the bookstore, trying to weigh out buying or not buying the book, I finally decided to get it. Read the first few lines and I kind of liked it in a weird way.

If I remember it correctly, this would be the first time that I read something from the medieval age. I never liked movies with the horses, knights and metal-wear in them. It was all too muddy for me. 

Is already in Iloilo

How I wish I could put up some photos but I can't because I lost my phone and my 35 mm films aren't processed yet. 

I haven't done anything remotely productive here in my hometown because I've been sleeping a lot. My body is trying to reclaim all the rest I substituted with schoolwork during my last and most torturous week in the Ateneo.

The heat here is evil. Loyola Heights atmosphere is way cooler. I sweat like a pig here whenever I leave the proximity of an airconditioner. What has happened?

I'm at Starbucks because our home internet sucks and I am the only one who actually thinks this is a problem. Everyone else is indifferent to the power of the interwebs. 

I'm waiting for a friend who is taking a long time to arrive. We haven't seen each other for a semester and how I hope we would not scream at each other and afterwards not regret not screaming at each other. 

Listen to "Hometown Glory" by Adele which I previously expected to be my coming home anthem. Its not being my coming home anthem. I'm not being emotional at all. All I feel is drowsiness.

Working hard for failing. this life.

Definitely not a lucky day.

I'm back in the dorm from the Chemistry and Literature finals. Literature was fine. It was on-the-spot reading comprehension. No way to prepare for it but by cleaning and oiling the mind beforehand.

I prepared for the Chemistry 7 exam though. It took me several days to devour the 400 pages of our wordy book. I toyed around every idea until the general area of my brain hurt. I wanted to over-prepare for the exam so if ever I get a bad grade, there would be no regret but a humbling proof of congenital retardation in the field of General Chemistry.

The exam had 75 multiple choice items. Very well made. Every single question could have been prepared for and it tested comprehension more than anything else. 

But I didn't feel well during the exam. I was shaky. It was as if all the stress from the previous days suddenly demanded rest. But I was fine. I fought the stress and worked my brain. It cooperated. I was confident because I never studied as hard as before in my life and the test wasn't impossible.

I sped up answering because I knew that there was ample time to review and recheck every number. I had my confidence at least 5-out-of-6. I was done and was rechecking my answers already. Number 7. I was rethinking whatever needs to be rethought when my eyes started to sting and my left contact lens pops out for no reason except, maybe, cosmic intervention. Both eyes started to sting so bad I just had to get out of the room and retreat in the dorm, remove my contacts and use eyedrops.

So I passed my paper and did exactly that. I know that I would definitely get more points if I reviewed it well but for some reason, my eyes just had to give out during that perfect second of my life. I am ruined.

Now, I'm clinging on to the optimistic idea that every downfall is a front act to extreme happiness. If that's a lie, look for me in history because I will torture whoever said that.

I'm so mad at life because although I always turn out fine, I get juggled too roughly. No wonder a lot of people lose their sanity.

This week in WTF!

Its finals week and I'm trying my best not to fail any of my subjects. 

With 'try' I mean sleepless nights, caffeine-overdose and eye bags that touch the ground. I could feel my brain flow like mud in my head. Its been turned into mush from all the hours in front of the books,  understanding every strand of the complicated inter-weave of material existential.

In simpler terms, I am the walking dead and it takes a lot of WTF to resurrect my senses.

This week in What the Fxck, Tyra Banks "Modelland"! A book I would probably never buy. 

"I am a fashion supermodel. My life is so hard!"

Metropolitan dreams are made of these: Rose petal sauce and French philosophy

I am here because I am taking a short break from churning out words for my English final paper where I talk about the Baudrillardian concept of simulacra and simulations in Tadiar's view of spatial development in the capital city as expressed in the article "Metropolitan Dreams".

My brain is being overworked. This short break will be used to create an ultimately pointless blog because its 2 AM and I have no one awake to talk to in my dorm. Relax, we have no formal classes tomorrow. I can sleep until Tuesday if I want to (which I definitely don't because of the deficiencies I have with other subjects that I have to eliminate by studying). 

Baudrillard is a French philosopher. I have xenophilic tendencies towards France and the French. They are just so awesome. The awkwardness I feel when trying to speak their language in a remotely accurate accent is the best awkwardness and unnecessary nasal contortion I have ever experienced. I would love to go to France someday.

For the meantime, let me find myself between the big worlds in this translated, worldview altering paper. 

If I get tired of making this English paper, I will proceed to typing a short paper on the film version of "Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua por chocolate)" by the Mexican Film Institute or something. 

My classmates and I particularly loved the scene where Tita's mother returns from the grave. That cinematic impression of ghost hauntings is just so simple, its scaring us to the point that it can happen in real life.

That part isn't available online so let's just see Tita prepare some flowery dish.

I am in love

Women like Robyn, count me in as a fan. I am definitely in love.

4-Peat Bonfire: Cellphone Cameras Are No Good

The glowing digit 4 on the stage is reminding everyone why they're partying under the rain on a Saturday night.
Four-peat man!

To give warranted thanksgiving to the players who dedicated so much time and effort for school pride this UAAP season, yesterday night was reserved for partying. Everyone seemed to forget its the last day before the technical start of finals/hell week. (Except me. I need good scores on my finals so I decided to move to McDo before the peak of the party and study until breakfast.)

I suck so bad. My dSLR was lying under my study table while I struggled with my phone camera. I should start making a check list for things to bring everywhere I go to.

Anyhow, here are some additional photos. Your eyes are fine. The photos are just really bad. Read the captions - but you will need a lot of mental/visual acuity to make more sense.

They showed a lot of AVPs. Nothing like seeing your team score again and again.

SHOOT THAT RECYCLABLE. You basically try to get your plastic cups go inside the "ring" on top.
I suggest if you walk near one of these, you watch your head. Plastic hurts when it hits.

The Four-peat Champions onstage. Everyone is happy except for those who could only see umbrellas.

This was during the lighting of the bonfire. Everyone went to an outdoor party during an El Niña with
hydrophobia.

Film Fetish

I have a fascination for film cameras so I was technically possessed by my five year old self about 4 month ago when I recovered a very old Looney Tunes 35mm Film camera from the archeological archive which my friends would refer to as "childhood".

I got this working plastic camera the year before I stepped into Grade One. Back then, I could never use it because my parents were well informed that paying a premium for film for a child is a bad idea and a waste of money. So what I did to pacify my fetish towards hearing the shutter open and close in 1/60 second was opening the back panel and rolling the film feeder and taking pretend pictures. I sound like a loser child but I wasn't.

Now that film is cheaper and I have less of the clumsiness that came with the birth, my parents can get me film. Yehey! I'm so happy. I finished my first roll on a small trip to a local beach, a practical exam of my highly documented driving school ordeal. The photos were nice and I really love the cloudiness and muted colors in film.

(Although my parents might think that I am being a little looney (haha. get it?) because I own a dSLR with several lenses but I'm using a really old, plasticky souvenir camera. Come to think of it, I'm a pretty blessed child.)

I brought the camera to Manila and I finished my first roll here just a few days ago. I'm going home to Iloilo next week so it would be nice if I can have the film developed there. I'm on my second roll, a Fujifilm 100 C-14. The usual except it was for free. Turns out when you have a roll processed, you get free film. Yehey!

What a beauty!

In terms of contribution, you are a saint

I woke up at around 8 AM today because since my final encounter with Taekwondo, my Thursday classes start at 10:30 AM. To ward off the morning grumpiness, I proceeded to boot my Macbook and opened Safari. My homepage is still the Apple website and I saw this:

I knew what it meant. I knew it was coming because I have read a lot about his health issues. When I saw this, I wished so hard that it meant something else. It didn't. Steve Jobs is gone. But its alright. He has overdone his part so much I find it easy to imagine him living in a select avenue in heaven.

I'm relatively new to Mac computers. I'm familiar with the other devices and I have always adored the simplicity and the ease of use. Steve Jobs never had forums so he could know what his target consumers wanted. He trusted in his instincts and understanding so much he got kicked out of Apple once (only to come back and transform the company into an empire). He never gave up and he is a full-time inventor and a full-time businessman. He is just amazing. He knew what the people wanted and thats about what being a producer is about.

I have watched his keynotes because I found it interesting how Apple introduces their products to the market. This eventually evolved into high regard for him and the company. When I finally owned my first Mac(book Pro), I had high expectations. All of them were exceeded and all these love and mourning I saw taking over the internet is proof that he has done an amazing job for millions of people.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) is an Apple ex-CEO. He died of an extremely damaging form of pancreatic cancer. He revolutionized human-computer interactions by instinct. He will definitely be missed. 

I studied

I studied for the two exams. Both dealt with molecules and what everything is made up of. I studied hard. Red - that means I'm serious.

After the first test, I felt really bad. A 10-item FINAL exam with only 2.5 minutes for each number. Each number involved several laboratory procedures and a lot of calculations. Naturally, the 2.5 minutes per item wasn't enough. All were complaining. We didn't expect time dilation to be tested in practice. I studied 12:30 PM - 2:30 AM for an exam that primarily measured how quick you can swing around glasswares and violate the buttons on a calculator. I am not saying it is the exam's fault, what I'm trying to say is that I feel bad because of the effort I put into the exam. The exam turned out impossible to pass. (I wanted a good mark on the exam because I had a chance on getting a really good final grade.)

The second is a written, hour and a half long exam. Really easy. But I got a lot of wrongs because I was careless. I typed and printed out reviewers, I endured long nights, I spent afternoons in front of dead trees (read: how to make paper) and prayed. Still, I get a mediocre score. Why in the amount of time left in my existence must I be careless during that exam? Why?

I am a fail at this subject. It is not with the exam, it is not with how hard the subject is. Something is wrong with me or with my relationship with the subject. Holes perhaps.

I know not studying and totally doing the opposite would do me no good but it is just very tempting. Its like everyone is chilling while you work your ass off trying to be better than yourself and you get the same square-inch piece of chocolate. Even sometimes, the others get extras and you just get your one, tiny piece no matter what you do. You turn out to be a better person but definitely feel bereft of proper reward.

Digging for reasons to keep moving forward is what I am doing. Digging up means going deeper. Slowly, I'm starting to realize that life is one sad movement and that all you can do is distract yourself from the melancholy. Let me do that.

This song is making more and more sense.

On other news, when I stay up late, put my heart into solving Math equations, I get good scores. I can't say I never loved Math. In fact, it is the opposite. I have never really hated Math. I love how it makes complicated mumbo-jumbos simpler and although it did the reverse with my understanding of the world, I couldn't remember hating it truthfully. I don't shine out but I love it.

Suddenly afraid of the ratio between age and maturity

I just rose from a 7-hour routine of studying and doing other stuff. Its our Chemistry Laboratory finals tomorrow and the stakes are high: this subject is almost the only one where I can get a pretty grade from.

I have never developed a study habit or method that raises my confidence in taking an exam. Its just in college where I realized how bad I want to be a public physician and now I'm scrambling for the years of practice I lost into browsing the internet and gathering information so amusing they are of theoretically no use. 

Its almost everyday I have a sudden blow of vague realization which is often followed by a strong calling to assume the fetal position. Hands around folded legs, trying to be as small as possible and the mind emptying of all the worries learned.

I'm just trying to distract myself with earthly endeavors. Life will never be understood.

LOWER YOUR COMPUTER VOLUME FIRST

Because the audio in this video is dangerously loud (I'm serious).

 

Thats not me singing but how I sang the "Song for Mary" is not that far (add some sighs of happiness and croakiness then it would sound like me).

The Ateneo Blue Eagles won over the Tamaraws towards their fourth consecutive win in the collegiate basketball league of the UAAP season 74. The game ended at 82-69 and was topped with white confetti. On other news, I am a bad sports writer.

Congratulations BLUE EAGLES! You made the Ateneo proud.

ATENEO BLUE EAGLES! FOUR-PEAT CHAMPIONS 2011 UAAP SENIORS BASKETBALL. Just sounds so good!

ATENEO SIS BOOM BAH!

“We’re able to look at the film and correct some of the mistakes we made in Game 1. We expect to play better today,” said Ateneo coach Norman Black (from here)

Although I'm not a big fan of basketball, Game 2 of Ateneo and FEU will be later. If the Ateneo wins, champions, four-peat, VICTORY! Rumors have been going around that in the likely chance we will win, a bonfire will occur tomorrow which can ultimately mean no class on Monday!

PLUS, I got to answer this long standing question in my brain, is four-peat a real word? Yes, it is.