Saturday, May 31, 2003

D&D Wish List

Here is a list of books I will probably never have the money to buy on my own (although I'd appreciate it if somebody buys me Sword and Fist or Song and Silence), at least for this year, because of other priorities:

1) Book of Vile Darkness

2) Manual of the Planes

3) Deities and Demigods

4) Book of Challenges

5) Psionics Handbook

Sale Sale Sale

Well, Megamall has a mall-wide sale...

But Powerbooks will be having one as well starting tomorrow until the 15th. So if there's any books you haven't gotten yet...

Bibliarch

Ah, the Bibliarch branch in Glorietta is larger now. And strangely enough, around one quarter of the shelf space is occupied by comics. And unlike its sibling Fully Booked, the Marvel and DC trade paperbacks are side by side.

Oh My God

Sorry but I'm still not used to seeing and hearing F4 music videos at the local video/music shop.

And you can just imagine my reaction when I saw their album on the shelves of Tower Records under New Releases.

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Friday, May 30, 2003

After Seeing Shaolin Soccer Dubbed

I just realized that Benj looks like the first goalie of the Shaolin Soccer team... with shorter hair. =)

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Damn GMA!

They're cutting my favorite 30-minute anime into a fifteen minute segment! Honestly, there's really something wrong when you're ads are as long as the show...

No More Harvey Birdman

Well, there goes the "new episodes" since today's episode is the old Johnny Quest ep.

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Never Confuse Ateneans with Actually Being Smart

It was grade for the reg com to actually put up a website regarding the random lottery numbers we're having for enrollment that caters to the thousands of students applying this semester.

Of course they forgot to factor in bandwidth and since they're using one of those free web sites with limited bandwidth, well, I'd be surprised if they cater to one thousand students.

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Thursday, May 29, 2003

5 1/2 Hours

That's how long it took me to finish One Hundred Years of Solitude in time for today's finals.

I can only be grateful that my reading speed adequately matches my tendency to cram.

Summer Vacation

Well, school is officially over. At least for me. I still have roughly two weeks of vacation days left, minus two days for enrollment and distribution of grades.

If I had any break, I didn't feel it. 2003 - summer vacation? What summer vacation?

Rain

Well, did drop my bag in the mud this morning. But other than that, there's less rain than there was yesterday, which is a good thing.

I guess it's nice to see people are now ranting about the storm rather than about the heat.

Sale!

Knowing me, when I refer to sales, it's usually regarding books rather than clothes.

Anyway, A Different Bookstore/Ink and Stone has a 40% sale on selected books from May 30 - June 8.

Which reminds me, my discount card is expiring tomorrow...

I'm Getting Published!

Ran into Ms. Liwag before I got home. She's having her Sabbatical in two weeks so that's probably the last time I'm going to see her for the year.

But she did inform me that the nonfiction class we had (together with Dr. Brion) is actually going to publish a book (there's something like one and a half dozen of us so that's around 18 stories total), all fully funded and taken care of.

I guess 2004 will be my year. I mean I'm graduating, going to be featured in two anthologies... (well, admittedly, my nonfiction work has room for LOTS of improvement... my fiction is even worse)

Damn Blogger!

It's down! Can't... update...

D&D

Yey, I finally have time to read my Fiend Folio which I got from ADB for something like P1350+ (the retail price is actually P1510, P300 cheaper than Comic Quest or CATS or Neutral Grounds, minus my 10% discout).

Also have time to plan my campaign when Jobert and co. arrive here in June.

Can't wait for Saturday's game with Cyril and Jobert's siblings.

Sorry for the RPG pen-and-paper geek ramblings. Fireball!

C.S.I.

Last night's episode was 1 1/2 hours long!

Octopus

That's the name of the shop at the second floor of the FBR building which sells specialty items.

Their shirts (which are for females) are also currently on sale, P200 compared to its regular P240+ price tag.

Did accompany a friend there this afternoon where she bought this kawaii shirt! =)

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Wednesday, May 28, 2003

The Good

Apparently, it is possible to cram an eight page paper in less than four hours.

Waking up at around 7:30 am, amidst taking a bath, eating breakfast, and catching the Mavericks vs Spurs game, I finished typing my paper by 12:15 pm. All without the benefit of Internet sources since my ISP goes haywire (and all I can do at best is check email) when it rains (or any natural disaster for that matter).

The Bad

So I brave the storm to return the (still-wet) books I borrowed from the library. Of course when I get there, I find a sign that says "closed at 12 pm". Great. I went all the way to Katipunan and risked my health for that.

The only high point in going to Ateneo was in stalking Tiu, who had a haircut and was wearing shorts and slippers. She was talking with her classmates, one of which whose name I forgot (since I am ever so horrible when it comes to names, dates, and anything else that involves identification) but I remember loaning her materials for her term paper on anime in first year (I actually helped three of them, one was a guy whose name I also forgot and haven't seen recently, the other girl being Daisy whose name I remember because Philip kept on talking about her during ROTC).

The Ugly

Well, didn't see any naked men on the streets this time but God, the rain is awful.

Rumor Corner

Got this from one of the mailing lists I'm in. I'd comment on their reliability but then I remembered it's a magazine that enlisted me rather than me subscribing to them. Anyway...

Ranma 1/2 on AXN, 7 pm (awww, I'll miss the twice-a-day Kenshin episodes), and Yu Gi Oh and Scryed on still unknown channels (which probably don't exist for all I know).

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Well, I'll be having an exam tomorrow, as well as needing to finish 100 Years of Solitude before then.

Also, one of these days, I'll really need to update my links.

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Tuesday, May 27, 2003

Yesterday's Aftermath

I've discovered that the books I borrowed from the library yesterday are still soaking wet. And they're due tomorrow.

Also, my tape recorder seems to have been broken. But apparently, it's the tape and not the recorder itself (although it is wet).

And pics from last month's con also got wet, with a picture sticking to the Kodak envelope.

Monsoon

It's not rain. I wish it were rain. It's a storm, with the heavy rainfall and high velocity winds. Flooded streets, naked people by the flyovers, fallen signs...

Power Failure

So tell me, how am I supposed to cram an eight page paper with the lack of electricity or light? And you can't tell me I should have started it earlier since there were power fluctuations too over the weekend.

They Don't Have Turabian!

Me: Miss, where's Turabian located?

Saleslady: You mean Elements of Style?

-at this point, a flashback of Danton's anecdote of finding Strunk and E.B. White's book under the "fashion" section of the bookstore.-

Me: No, Turabian.

Saleslady: Kate Turabian? That's the name of the author right and not the title of the book. Isn't the book's name Elements of Style?

-she has a point about referring to A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations as just Turabian instead of its actual title.-

Me: Yes, the author is Kate Turabian. No, the book isn't Elements of Style.

Saleslady: It's not here. All the English books are on this shelf. I don't think we restocked yet.

And that, my friends, is how I ended up soaking wet traveling from Katipunan to Virramall only to find that National Bookstore didn't have a copy of Kate Turabian's book. So I had to go all the way to Robinsons Galleria (which during "normal" weather would be fine but with a storm looming over the corner and all...)

At 4 PM

There's a power failure. I miss my TV shows. And the light which I need to read books.

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Monday, May 26, 2003

Havoc

My umbrella is drenched. My jacket is drenched. My bag is drenched. I'm drenched. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it has been raining for most of the day, and I do not like it one bit.

Walking in the Rain

Yes, it is the fate a commuter suffers. And well, I do not appreciate cars passing me by to splash water on my already wet body.

CCHQ Charges!

Well, I didn't notice it but they've had a credit card device for the past two weeks now. It's not as if I have a credit card but for those with one, beware!

Beyblade Comic

While looking for Turabian (since I apparently need one for my paper due on Wednesday) at National Bookstore (they only have the 6th edition and not the newer 7th ed), I saw a translated manga of Beyblade, and only for P150!

Elbert told me it's by Summit Media following the success of their imported product WITCH.

It's a high point because it's probably the first LEGALLY translated manga made available here in the Philippines. (And people have been wondering why only European countries and other Asian countries get domestic translations of manga...)

Traversing the Storm

I come home to... SPAM. Lots and lots of SPAM. Ugh.

New Anime on GMA

Well, some shows were bumped to an earlier time slot to make way for their newer anime which was dubbed by Telesuccess several years ago (and made available on VCD) but is only seeing the light of day recently. The only thing that's interesting me is Ghost in the Shell, but that's only because I'm hoping against hope that it's the new TV series and not the movie (the latter more likely since Telesuccess has dubbed the movie a few years back already).

Meteor Garden

Honestly, I can't beleive I'm still watching this. At this point, the plot has become predictable and everyone is acting clueless and stupid, like any other naive soap opera.

Foolish me for still watching it on TV.

And in Other News

I'm still figuring out who this is.

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Sunday, May 25, 2003

Midnight's Children

I've spent something like five hours now, trying to finish the novel by Salman Rushdie (gosh, have I been misspelling his name all this time?) in time for tomorrow's quiz. Amidst rain, amidst darkness, amidst smoke, and amidst family, I will succeed in doing so (times like these, I'm glad I'm a fast reader).

Sunday School

In the convoluted religion of my family, I am a Protestant who goes to Sunday School every Sunday morning at 11 am (father goes to church at 7:30, mother and sister at 9 am, and brother is a Catholic who only goes to church on "special occassions" such as Christmas and Lent).

I should have ranted about this several weeks ago but I guess it's only now that my patience has snapped. Our teacher, Tessa (do you know how many Tessa's there are in the Philippines?), has been the recent replacement for Sunday School teachers for college students are hard to find (everyone wants to teach kids). And well, I got fed up today because she's been repeating herself over and over for the past hour and a half, even mentioning the word "God" every five seconds or so.

Makes me wonder what adults think of us, errrr, adolescents (I was going to say teenagers but I'm already twenty). Intelligent conversation dropped down as her lecture was reduced to a monologue that is actually only fifteen minutes long at most that get's repeated several times. Well, she does have an improvement since in the previous weeks, the words "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" seemed taboo to her and she referred to them as "your special friends". There's also that look on her face whenever she refers to them.

The Rain

Of course when I got back home, I returned to reading Rushdie (by the way, Satanic Verses, which he also wrote, is available at A Different Bookstore for those interested). Then it rained.

I have this strange phobia for storms. Not that I'm afraid of getting wet, or afraid to get swept away by the wind (which is a joke by people who've seen me, who have claimed the wind will just blow me away one day), or afraid that a shark will suddenly fall from the sky, but when it comes to the Philippine Network and storms, they don't go well together.

Judging from yesterday's power failures, most of which occured while it was raining, I expected the same to happen today. I hoped I would be proven wrong. But that wasn't the case.

Moreover, had to set the time of the VCR because of the ever so frequent blackouts. And despite the fact that my mobile phones only had one bar left in their battery meter, they lasted long enough to be charged when electricity came back (which really isn't an assurance the power failure won't happen again).

The Smoke

Some time after the storm, I was still in my room, doing nothing but read, when my nose smelled something. And then I coughed. Smoke and it was slowly engulfing me.

Got out of my room only to find out the house is nearly totally invaded by smoke since someone was burning either trash or leaves near our house. I went to the guest room (which is now vacant since uncle left us already) since that's the closest "air tight" room I know. But still, I did manage to smell smoke even from that room.

At this point, I realize that if someone were to drop poisonous gas in the village, hiding in my house would be a futile effort. We'd all die a slow death.

The Darkness

It's really hard to read when there's no light. Hopefully the power failures haven't struck during evenings. Yet.

Change of Plans

Apparently, the 184 page comic I'm planning to release by the end of the year got shafted since Elbert is afraid his work won't be seen in the 1/4 long bond size. Opted to go for 1/2 long bond but with the pages reduced by half. Will await quotations at how much this is going to cost me.

Surprise!

I've been getting text messages from people who's number isn't recorded in my phone book. Today is a welcome surprise though as I found out Becca is here and is visiting until August or September before she heads off abroad.

Of course the person I'm really eager to arrive here in the Philippines is Mia (it helps that she's cute!). She's one of the few people in PO that cares (freaked out, perhaps, but accepts me nonetheless). It's strange though that she's touring Japan with her PO friend that hates me (as to the reason, I don't know, since I've discovered a long time ago that if a girl is mad at you, well, you may never know the reason why). Then again, it's no surprise since I tend to bring out either the best in people, or the worst.

Then there's Vern whom I haven't seen but have been in correspondence with (errr, at least until my last email).

I Love the Philippines

I'm one of those people that loves this country, flawed as it is. It's just not the surrealistic atmosphere or the advantageous position I am in (I mean if I weren't well-off, I'd hate my life, no matter what country I'm in). I still beleive that there is hope for this nation (no matter how unlikely that chance is) and it's the place I've grown up, the place I'm familiar with.

One may not be consciously aware of it but Filipinos who travel abroad can't help but compare the place they're staying with where they came from, the Philippines. And it's land of piracy, cheap products, crazy traffic schemes, congested areas, and a nation of crammers, is something one takes to heart.

It's common to have the dream of leaving this place. But that's not the case with me. This is who I am, this is where I'm going to be.

Never mind the power failures. Or the storms. Or the heat. Or the corrupt officials. Or the poverty surrounding the country. Or the perpetual traffic. Or inefficient ISPs. Or the unsolved crimes. Or the pollution. Or the piracy. Or floods. Or the increasing rate of the peso to the dollar. Or the lack of a national language...

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