Calendar of Events for September

Aug. 30 - Sept. 7: Bookfair at Megatrade Hall

Sept. 9: Charm's birthday

Sept. 13: Level-Up Games Ragnarok Convention at Glorietta

Sept. 13: Carlo Vergara's comic seminar at Ateneo

Sept. 13: Carlos's birthday

Sept. 19: Eda's birthday

Sept. 20: Anime on Ice at Megamall Ice Skating Rink

Sept. 20: UP AME Karaoke Contest

Sept. 21: Neutral Grounds Gaming Convention at Megatrade Hall

Sept. 21: Dean's "birthday"

I guess the next month that I'll have my hands full will be on December with C3 and all the other planned events that's going to happen.

On Orals

Orals scare the life out of me. I'm not really afraid of failing. I'm terrified though of disappointing my teachers. It's one thing to fail a written exam since all you have to do is submit the test paper, hope the teacher doesn't check it until he or she gets home, then get the hell out of the classroom. With oral exams though, you face the teacher and see the look on their faces when you fail to meet their expectations.

Having said that, I guess there was a lot of pressure on me for my philo orals last Thursday considering I've known the teacher for more than a year and I've been his student for all two semesters of my third year. Sure, the rest of my classmates were pressured to pass. But for me, I had a year of knowing the teacher as an incentive to do my best (or at least get a B).

Pinoy Exchange

I've stopped visiting the "literature" messageboards for the past two months until today, where I had to respond to a lot of SF&F threads running amok.

Throughout the years I've been visiting those forums, threads about books people love eventually degenerate into "actors I want to portray this and that character". It's a pet peeve of mine but... books have a medium of their own and from experience, a couple of novel to movie adaptations turn bad (though of course, there are exceptions). Each medium has its own strengths and weaknesses. But the pre-emption of who people think best fits the character of a novel for the screen... well, leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth. Unless, of course, the actor really fits the character (but that's not the case).

And another annoying thread is when people pit one book against another. "Lord of the Rings vs. *insert book name*", or "Harry Potter vs. *insert other book name*". It even goes the way of "*insert SF novel* vs *insert Fantasy novel*". I mean even SF&F has its own sub-genres. Sometimes, people give unfair comparisons, such as a stand-alone novel against a multi-epic series of books. Or a science-fiction story against a fantasy novel. Or even unfinished series against an already established line for the genre. It's as if the books themselves couldn't be reviewed in itself.

And let's not forget spoilers. People sometimes blurt out spoilers without giving a spoiler space. Especially in book reviews (even when they don't have to) since people have a tendency to summarize the story when giving a review, when that isn't necessarily so. So watch out for message boards, bulletin boards, emails, blogs, journals, review articles, and columns that suddenly give spoilers, whether it's a film, a book, or a comic.

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The Urban Legend

One of these days, I will become an urban legend. After two straight days depriving myself of sleep, these are some conceptions people have of me:

1) I am able to walk great distances (i.e. Ateneo to Virra Mall).

2) I carry a similarly heavy amount of stuff (presumed to be heavier than me).

3) I am like an orchid, subsisting on air alone (people rarely see me eat).

The Workshop

Spent a good deal of fifteen hours at the workshop. Highlights include:

Me bringing a roll of chocolate cake to the event (and as usual, I'm allergic to the food I bring).

Before midnight, the entire workshop praying the rosary (and times like these, I'm glad I'm not Catholic... but that didn't stop me from joining them in praying).

I managed to sleep at midnight, only to wake up at 3 am since two classmates were smoking at the porch and I could smell it even while dreaming.

Sleep Deprivation Part 2

Unfortunately, Friday evening was spent with Elbert and company since I was the designated, uh, host for him since he was going to crash at my place.

Met at Comic Quest where Vin was there together with Carlos. Did manage to sneak a peak on certain RPG books but we had to leave since Elbert's sweetheart was calling.

Charm

Remember that episode in Seinfeld where Jerry managed to get a really beautiful girlfriend who would charm everyone else? For example, when Jerry got arrested for speeding, the cop was going to give him a ticket when his girlfriend politely asked if the cop would make an exception and he did.

Similarly, Cammy managed to call the waiter with one smile wherein it previously proved futile for Elbert to ask for extra rice at Tokyo Tokyo.

Karaoke

Eventually, Vin, Elbert, and I went to the karaoke bar with Dean, his lovely wife Nikki, Carlo Vergara, and Tobie.

Honestly, I don't listen to the radio or watch MTV. Music is an alien concept to me. I felt like dead weight during the entire time, the only reason I was there since Elbert was going to sleep over at my place.

Karaoke was definitely not for me.

At least that and I couldn't really inhale because of the smoke (then again, I've been to Magic: The Gathering tournaments, and those places are definitely worse when it comes to breathing).

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Workshop

On a side note, I won't be going home today since I have a workshop until the wee hours of the morning and tomorrow evening, there's karaoke (I don't sing mainly because I don't listen to the music hence unfamiliar not only with the singers and lyrics but the tune as well). I won't be able to respond to blog posts, email, replies, etc. anytime soon. But feel free to send me text messages. =)

I Look Like Harry Potter

I don't know whether to be glad that my livejournal is having lots of responses, mainly due to my icon which has my picture that they claim resembles Harry Potter. I wish when they say it's cute, it was me they were referring to rather than the concept of me looking like Harry Potter.

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Philosophy

One day after my horrible Theology midterms, I have my Philo orals. That doesn't really leave me a lot of time to study, especially considering a) I'm not that familiar with the subject matter (since in previous circumstances, the readings were crystal clear... now, it lacks a certain elaboration), b) there aren't any thesis statements, c) I had a total of three hours of study (although in this case, 3 hours was enough), and d) some of my handouts are missing some pages. >.<

Anyway, spent the morning studying and once I was done, I waited outside the Philo department to calm myself down. And then other people also taking the orals came and they started asking each other questions. I guess under normal circumstances, this would also be a great way to review for an exam: by hanging out early so that you can hear the questions of other people and what they have to say.

I also acted as the one calming them down, students who lacked confidence and didn't know what to expect with Mr. Bulaong. I merely told them that as long as they have a semblance of knowing the subject matter, they won't fail. It's hard to fail his course, but it's also difficult to acquire an A.

Apparently, some of Mr. Bulaong's students know me. But the reverse isn't true (maybe it's becauses his class holds some 40+ students so I don't know who they are... either that or they're behind me). So it did surprise me that they knew me (I haven't exactly been the participating student during this sem).
Since there weren't any thesis questions, I just read the readings and all potential monologues became just that: a potential. I'm the type that wants to solve the problem when I face it, not before. Fortunately, when it was time for my orals, I did... okay. I mean my worse case scenario was a D (considering my given reasons from the first paragraph). Well, I think it'll be higher than a C (a C+ at worst), perhaps even a B+ if I'm fortunate.

My, errr, Ex-Crush

During my thesis class where all my blockmates were present, one of them suddenly blurted out this:

blockmate: Charles, kilala ko na kung sino stinostalk mo. (Charles, I know who you are stalking.)

In my defense, I stalk everyone equally (not just my crushes). I think what my blockmate meant to say, they knew who I was interested in.

Me: Sino? (Who?)

blockmate: Si Steph. (Steph.)

Me: She's not my crush anymore. And in the four years of us being blockmates, you only find out about this... now?

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I Wanna Kill Terry Goodkind

"Science-fiction is dead." (Although he does claim there are exceptions.)

And for someone who writes fantasy, he dislikes fantasy. >.<

His books start to make sense when you hear him admitting that he writes for a reason (to teach values).

In case you're wondering, he's anti-Iraq (although he does acknowledge declaring "war on terrorism" is nothing but a tactic since you can't declare war on an abstract thing).

Here's where you can find the interview. If you have 80 MB of bandwidth to spare.

Honestly, if it's just dialogue, you don't need to encode the mp3 in stereo (mono will do, which halves the file size). And it doesn't need to be recorded in the highest setting since it's not music. It's just people talking.

Which is why I downloaded the real audio file.

Rain Rain

There was a slight shower but for the most part, it's been sunny all day.

Welcome to Philippine erratic weather.

Theology Exam

An hour before the exam, I find out I need to memorize as well the paragraph number of the statements I remembered from the encyclicals.

Unstable ISP

As usual, my Internet connection flutters from fast to nil.

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Cramming

Nearly done cramming for Theology. After today's exam, I'll worry next about Philo (one step at a time...).

Interesting Idea

And one of the things people are searching for in my blog is comics about call centers. What a nifty idea.

Rain Rain Go Away

And it did. But now I have a cold. *achoo!*

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It's Been Raining

The entire day. I mean the longest interval of no rain I've seen so far is 30 minutes (at least in my area). And that's no exagerration.

I Really Should Stop Cramming

But honestly, I only started studying for Theology at 1:30 pm. That's 24 hours before tomorrow's long exam.

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I should be cramming for Theo but...

...this is the only day I'm free to get part of my salary from my summer job. And of all days, it's raining (maybe God would be kind and ironic by making it rain strong enough so that tomorrow's classes are cancelled and I don't have to take my Theo exam... not Thursday though since that screws up my Philo orals [will there be orals if there's signal no. 3 or not?] as well as it's the day of my block's workshop).

Umbrella

I actually lost my black umbrella last weekend (either left it at Jaime's car or at Encomium) and right now I have a brown checkered one to replace it (and it has a button so that I don't get injured closing the umbrella!).

Of course walking from the Powerplant to Buendia, my umbrella isn't used to fend off the rain as much as it is used to shield myself from the splashes high-speeding vehicles along EDSA cause. That's courtesy for you.

Books!

Well, Fully Booked has a paperback edition of Neil Gaiman's Coraline going for P200+. There's also a trade of Jimmy Corrigan. And the hardcover of Terry Pratchett's Night Watch (along with play adaptations of some Discworld novels).

Where my Salary Went

It went to ordering books at ADB since I managed to avail of a 15% discount. Unfortunately, of the one and a half dozen books I ordered, only one is actually going to me. And that's because I gave my own copy of the book to someone else...

Most of the good stuff at ADB were also gone, especially since the sale's until the end of the month. No more William Gibson, no more Douglas Adams...

The new D&D Corebooks are still on Amazon's bestseller list, I think. And ADB's also ran out of them, but there's still Fiend Folio and Savage Species.

Blaster Worm

That worm is getting annoying. It screwed up my computer earlier this morning and the ingenius worm actually disabled my Norton Anti-Virus.

I Hate the Rain

I'm just waiting for the storm to fry the telephone and electricity lines so that my computer would suddenly crash along with every other appliance in the house.

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Just A Thought

I was watching yesterday's UAAP game between Ateneo and UE and it occurred to me... has anyone looking for the UE basketball player Charles Tan stumbled unto my blog and mistaken me for him?

Pretty Sight

Cammy dropped by school today (she was with Elbert). Does this mean there's something to look forward to every Monday? =)

Streaks of Silver

Just found out today that my classmate in Philo, Tracy, has streaks of silver hair. Reminds me of Polgara from David Edding's Belgariad and Mallorean, although in Tracy's case, it's dispersed rather than an actual lock of hair.

So pretty...

Anyway, I think the last time I raved about someone with silver hair was last year since I knew another person in Fr. Dacanay's class who had a similar situation.

New Bookstore

Aeon Books. Address: Unit 108 Loyola Heights Condominium, #23 Esteban Abada St. cor F. de la Rosa St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City 1108. Telephone: 9269406.

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