Grad Pics



And this is the shot they say that looks like Harry Potter when I'm not even trying.

How "creative" of me.



I don't smile.

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Seminar

I managed to attend Comicol's seminar this morning where Budjette Tan, Dean Alfar, and Zach Yonzon/Kensai/"Sword Saint" (sorry, couldn't find his blog) gave their talk and uh, product placement.

Of course I'd spend the next five hours with them since the Comicol Crew (which basically meant me, Elbert, and Carlos/Gio) along with surprise guests Nikki Alfar and Carlo Vergara had lunch (I practiced my jedi mind trick and told them to eat an Encomium, where two cooks were forced to serve around a dozen people hence a lot of late lunches and angered customers).

Let's just say it was a blogworthy event, and I'll leave it to the rest (since I did give their links) to tell their takes of the day (both good and bad).

Money!

Finally, I have a date when I'll finally get paid for my job during the long summer. And not too soon since the annual bookfair is just around the corner.

On a side note, the comic I'm supposed to release has been delayed for what, two months? And it'll most likely be delayed further.

Vampire Fans

Found out that Nikki and Vin are Laurell K. Hamilton fans. Well, good for them. Lately though, that's the only book I've read in the past few weeks, since D&D and schoolwork has been eating up most of my time (and let us not forget cramming).

Since midterms is already here, I need something to calm me down, and the guilty pleasure that is reading Anita Blake soothes my nerves.

But I still have to cram ;_;

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Food Sale

In one of my block's attempts to earn money to pay for the publication of our book (and thankfully, it's now only an ebook instead of the P300,000 printing cost of an actual 300 page trade paperback), we had our food sale last Wednesday 'til Friday (as to why it didn't start earlier, see Wednesday's entry).

As usual, the only ones actually enjoying their meal were the flies feeding off me.

Then there's the fact that at one point during those three days, we ran out of 1) bread (which is a good thing), 2) napkins (a bad thing because somebody forgot to bring it), 3) paper cups (a good thing since that means 300 people bought from us), 4) plastic bags, 5) candies (because it only lasted for a day), 6) butter and sugar (no one really brought it on the first day), 7) "spanish" sardines (it spoiled), 8) change.

On the good side, we actually managed to double our publication funds. Still, I feel so ashamed for all the "pity purchases" we, errr, coerced from people.

Rumor Corner

Let it be said that you first heard it here: tentative date for C3 (Culture Crash Convention... I refuse to call it the C3 Con since that would be redundant!) is on Dec. 13 - 14. As usual, it's at the Megatrade Hall 2.

Student Planners

Feh. Our student council distributed during the entire week "student planners" for the seniors (which we most likely paid for in our tuition). I honestly don't see why we need student planners (I mean us students have been studying for four years without one... and those that do need it probably have their palm pilots and mobile phones already).

And me being the pain in the ass that I am, I really want to comment on the printing, which was horrible, especially when it came to the calendar (which was blurry, among other things). Did I mention the calendar is the weirdest since it starts out on Monday (labeled as M) and ends with Sunday (labeled as S, which is right next to Saturday, also labeled as S), which isn't even distinct since it's black and not red like the usual calendars.

There's this joke our pastor tried to trick me into. He asked me how was the second day of the week pronounced: "Tues-day or Toos-day". Fortunately, I answered correctly (after a few minutes of thought). It was Monday. My point? The week starts on a Sunday, not Monday. And while we do plan our lives thinking with Monday as the start of the week, it really looks horrible when printed (especially when it comes right after Saturday... and it's not in red... and it's really blurry).

Guess What

Found out that my Philo teacher, Mr. Bulaong, managed to stumble upon my blog.

And well, despite next week having two holidays, it's my hell week since I have Theo midterms (Mr. Tejido), Philo midterms, my block's workshop for our book, and most probably the return trip to our immersion site.

Lalalalala

I'm looking forward to Terry Pratchett's new book, The Wee Free Men.

And here is an interview with Glen Murakami who's working on Teen Titans for Cartoon Network.

Speaking of Cartoon Network, Justice League season 2 just debuted a few hours ago, and next month, they'll be showing He-Man and Yugi-Oh.

I guess I'm sad that Return of the King will premier on Dec. 25 in the US, which means there's a good chance that us Filipinos won't get to see it until January. Late January at that.

Still, in terms of movies, there seems to be a lot of supposed interesting stuff coming out in 2004 (some of which I didn't even know was coming out), arranged according to how long it took my browser to load: Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Shrek 2, Harry Potter (which reminds me, I haven't seen any of the films yet and my unread book 5 has yet to be returned), Spiderman 2, I, Robot, Catwoman, Alien vs Predator, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (die Lewis die! oh wait, he's dead...), The Punisher, Blade 3 (this is what, the nth comic adaptation for 2004?), The Ring 2 (so what was the point of compressing the first three Japanese films into one American adaptation if you're also going to release a sequel?), Spongebob Squarepants (no, I don't want Nickelodeon but Spongebob's a chick magnet so I might as well mention him), Fantastic Four, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Dragon's Lair (anyone remember this old PC video game?), X Files 2 (I was never really a fan), and I guess that's it.

Grad Pics

I got my contact prints last Wednesday although it's now with Elbert, whom I hope remembers to bring it on Monday because there's a fine of P100 per day late.

Apparently, everyone from the photographer to the make-up artists to the secrataries releasing the pics told me I looked like Harry Potter (no, my costume wasn't Harry Potter).

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What I Learned in Class

One of the reasons why Fully Booked (a.k.a. Page One) had overpriced books is because the books contribute in paying the really expensive franchise (it was Page One, after all).

And while I do know that a large revenue of National Bookstore comes from school supplies, it just surprised me that books only account for 10% (I thought it was around the lines of 20-30%).

Lastly, the difference between a hardcover and a trade paperback is that the former has, well, a hardcover, which gives the illusion that the book is bigger, when it's actually not (the actual pages have the same dimensions).

NBS Cubao

Managed to drop by National Bookstore's main branch in Cuabo since the 4th floor has a ton of used (and cheap) books going for around P20 - P30 each.

Not that I found anything worth buying but for those interested, it's a place to find cheap, if not necessarily good, books (in semi-good condition too).

Worm!

This morning, there was this talk about a computer worm infecting people's computers when viola! When I got home, my computer was apparently infected with the Blaster Virus.

National Book Award

I really hope Carlo wins the National Book Award for Ang Kagila-gilalas Na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah.

And It's Really Sad...

When you can predict who's calling you at the house, and that's only because they need something from you.

Midnight Syndicate

Click here to preview their songs.

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D&D Music

Midnight Syndicate is releasing an album specifically for D&D games (wishlist!). I mean with titles like Hero's Valor, Eternal Mystery, and Lair of the Great Wyrm, how can you go wrong?

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The Ateneo Administration

Our group was supposed to organize a food sale the other week but it didn't get approval from OSA. And then last Monday, they suddenly approve our foodsale. Along with the words "it's this week".

In other Ateneo-related news, a friend lost his ID. But since the school has a new policy, he has to acquire an avi david (did I spell that right?) and file a complaint of loss before obtaining a replacement.

Shit!

Yesterday, I was on the verge of crapping in class. Amazingly, I held out for a couple of hours before finding a "clean" restroom in school. Yes, there are a lot of restrooms in the school but few are actually clean.

Fortunately, I was able to find one. And my big bag is well worth it since aside from being heavy, it contains tissue (among other things).

The Soap Opera...

... that is my family. Mother and brother got into an argument the other night and as usual, I was suddenly dragged into it. And my mom, who constantly watches soap operas whether it's Marimar or Meteor Garden, was overly too emotion and trying to give us children the guilt trip. Unfortunately, that gimmick doesn't work on me.

Basically, the argument went that mother was "pakialamera" (butting in or getting involved). And while some might say that's what moms do, well, she interferes when we're already asking her not to do so. And since I've been with her for the past twenty years, more likely than not, mom would screw up things. Like the time she sprayed my room with Baygon without me asking and the smell lingered for several weeks (and that's why I never asked to spray my room with insecticide).

Put in another way, my mom lacks temperance. But worst of all, she refuses to beleive anything said bad about her, whether it's true or not. So convincing her of the fact is at the very least annoying (and quite frankly, the only tried and tested way of doing that is to embarass her in public but what kind of son would I be if I did that?), and she throws a tauntrum at the same time claiming to have more experience ("marami na akong nakaing bigas").

New Anime

Baki the Grappler is replacing Shaman King next week on GMA.

Level Up is having their convention on September 13 at Glorietta, and Anime on Ice (which is basically where people skate in an ice rink wearing their costume) the week after that (Sept. 20). I wonder if anyone will remember my birthday...

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Boots

Sometimes, I'm really tempted to come into school wearing boots. It's the rainy season and well, I hate getting wet. Spent the better part of last Friday with soaked boots and socks. It's a good thing I didn't catch a cold.

UAAP Games

When I talk about UAAP games, I'm really just talking about one sport: basketball (and trust me, there's something really wrong with that since other athletes are involved in the UAAP yet it's only basketball that's the crowd drawer).

Anyway, people at Ateneo were fussing over the game held last Saturday. Never mind the fact that it's not the championship or anything but just another regular game, except it's the first one in the season against the school's "rival", DLSU.

I don't even bother. I don't even know who won last Saturday (although DLSU was catching up to AdMU when someone else was channel surfing).

The Long Weekend

For the past few weeks, I've been playing RPG games like crazy and coming home late since Jobert's here only until next week (and it does sadden me that their family has given up on the Philippines and is planning to migrate in the US).

Anyway, I was the game master last Friday (and it's been quite awhile since I was one) but unfortunately, the game that was supposed to start at 7 pm started at 10:30 pm and majority had curfews of 12 pm or so.

Then came home late again the next day because of another game. It's come to the point that when you arrive home at your village, most of the guards at the gate are already asleep.

Around the Metropolis

Yesterday was the most taxing on me. I finally "broke" my leather shoes since I can walk with it for long hours without my feet hurting.

Had to travel from Ateneo to North EDSA, and then from there to Megamall, and then from Megamall to Makati. All without the benefit of lunch.

At least I got to see pretty people, although it was pretty discomforting when a certain someone (unfortunately male) was trying to hit on me (again, unfortunately not the first time).

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