Sembreak Day Three

This entry was written last October 28, 2008, 12:27AM while the Urban gurU was at Sariaya, Quezon. It just so happened it got lost in translation just like Scarlett Johansson...

naalala kita pag umuulan SEMBREAK
naalala kita pag giniginaw SEMBREAK
naalala kita ilang bukas pa ba
bago tayo ay magkita

I really hate it when my phone receives an SMS early in the morning. Since I always place it near my pillow, I would wake up easily even just by a single SMS alert.

Past 7 AM, AJ’s SMS woke me up saying:

This is Ms. AJ of PSYSC blah blah blah… I just want to confirm Sir that we’re supposed to meet at McDonalds Philcoa at 2pm this afternoon for our trip to Sariaya?

Good thing I woke up on the right side of the bed. So I replied:

Really? Oh that’s why no one from PSYSC showed up last night! Wadapak! I thought it was 2am?!

I’d better go home now and catch some sleep. See you this afternoon!

After a few minutes, my phone rang.

After her call I went back to sleep for another hour or two. Past 9am I fixed my bed and tried to catch some Pokemon.

Oh, by the way. I always watch Pokemon before going to work. Like this one ryan_h caught for me:


Lunchtime I went to SM North to pay some bills and to deposit a check; passed by National Bookstore to look for the latest Reader’s Digest but ended buying a Discovery Channel Magazine.


Thou it is almost a hundred pesos more expensive than RD, the free CD of exclusive Discovery Channel ringtones, clips and wallpaper convinced me a lot to buy the mag —stuff that I can use in classroom instruction.

1:15 pm but am still on a jeepney headed back to UP Campus. Car accident along CP Garcia stranded me in an Ikot jeep that made me decide not to go anymore to the National Institute of Geological Science (NIGS). I’m supposed to give an HSBC form to Enj at her lab coz she’s about to leave for Kidapawan that night and am about to leave for Sariaya AT 2PM!!!

1:40 pm. Alas! Am home coz I decided not to give the form to her anymore. I still have 20 minutes to pack my things for an overnight stay at Sariaya, Quezon to visit PSYSC’s 2008 Children’s Science Interactive Workshop, as a member of its Board of Trustees.

I arrived at McDOA (McDo + philcOA) 15 minutes past 2 o’clock but AJ wasn’t there yet. She arrived after I’ve finished my fries and then we left to fetched another speaker at the College of Engineering.

Around 3 o’clock pm, our five-hour journey began. We had a pitstop at Sta. Rosa, Laguna to fetch another speaker. By the way, Chico Garcia has really nice pix of some EK-EK at Enchanted Kingdom. I highly suggest that you visit his site for the said pix.

It was not a boring trip with an Archeologist from the National Museum, a Chemical Engineer, an Environmental Engineer, and a Grade School Science Teacher. I guess you already have an idea of what topics transpired in our conversations. Nevertheless, since Science is already a part of our lives, I assure you that we still have other things to talk about. Examples were: the mechanics of why Filipino motorbike riders are very prone to accidents, Petron and Shell’s monopoly over the country’s oil economy, Coast Guard trainees diving over Manila Bay, an engineer’s bridal shower, and the THES-QS results and other politics inside the University, to name a few.

See! I told you, they are purely not geek talk!

8 pm we arrived at Villa Del Prado. The sumptuous dinner waited for us as early as 7pm. Am telling you, any dinner would be very sumptuous for anyone who just came from a 5-hour drive.

Past 9 o’clock we transferred to a nearby resort where we will be housed.

So now, here I am writing this entry in a beach resort somewhere in Sariaya, Quezon.

It’s drizzling outside.
It’s cold.
And I’m excited to see YOU.

And oh, by the way, I just missed again another deadline for the Blog Awards Challenge. And that really…

When the Urban gurU returned to Quezon City last November 1, he found out that the Blog Awards Challenge's deadline was extended. Unfortunately, work piled up on his desktop causing him to cram in computing his students' grades and not be able to write for the BAC.

The Blog Challenge Experience and ‘Other’ Experiences

Despite of a spontaneous guilt of my last ‘virtual vice,’ here I am again in front of Ace writing another post. For those who still don’t know who in the world is Ace, here he is:

I remember a plurker reacting to my plurk when I mentioned that I’ll be spending the entire day with Ace. Duh. (insert annoyed emoticon here)

By the way, Ace turned 1 year old last August 5!

Happy birthday Ace!

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After two weeks of not writing a post, I am holding Plurk accountable for this disequilibrium. Weekly plurkfiesta emptied my wallet, held me sleepless at night, and kept me wondering should I even attend work the next day…
(Fail on the dramatic effects. Hekhek.)

pix source

What matters most now is that Plurk proved to me that it is indeed a social networking site. Meeting fellow bloggers in real human form is a leap in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution! Back then, I only read about their thoughts online, but now having conversations with them, debating with relevant (and not so relevant) issues, watching them finish packs of cigarettes or blow their pipes, sharing –OH with them, food, food, and more food, etc, etc.
(Wait, this topic deserves another post. I’ll try to ponder first how will I write it.)
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So before I forget, I just want to thank The Blog Award Challenge for including my entry as a finalist to the 6th Blog Awards Challenge: The Virtual Vice.

My post entitled “Vicious, As It May Seem” was included in the top three final entries.

The Blog Awards Challenge, by the way, “is a blog competition combining literary skills, interactivity and peer polling.” It is a theme-based writing event for everyone in the blogosphere. Done monthly, it is designed to have a peer-to-peer recognition and is aimed to promote and recognize good writing from both veteran and new bloggers.

Being a finalist for to the 6th Blog Awards Challenge, my entry will now compete for blogger votes, which will count for 20% of the final score.

You can visit the list of entries here.

But take note, you can only vote if you are blogging for at least three (3) months with a minimum of thirty entries in your blog, prior to your voting in the competition. This rule will eliminate phantom voters and reduce incidence of cheating.

ARE YOU QUALIFED TO VOTE? Then, visit this page and leave a comment.

Voting ends on the 6th of September, 2008.





(Now back to plurking!)

Vicious, As It May Seem

Depravity, iniquity, wickedness, or corruption. Infirmity, frailty, imperfection, or simply a bad habit. Whatever you call it, to what vicious extent had cyberlife affected your ‘real’ life?

Gula

It all started with mIRC (Internet Relay Chat). And I am blaming Khaled Mardam-Bey for my Internet addiction!

Honestly, I was a late bloomer. I started chatting thru mIRC in the year 2000, five years after Khaled created the software for Microsoft Windows. In my entire fourth year high school life, I was busy browsing mIRC chatrooms, looking for fellow Filipinos, annoying an aged American chatter, or scavenging rooms just to bully anyone until 2 o’clock in the morning.

I vividly remember an instance when I recognized a name in one local chatroom. The profile says: “dundz f 25.” Curious of whom she was, I asked her, “hi! asl please?”

Homaigood! I was startled. It was my English teacher! It was my English teacher who lives two blocks away from my house.

Cool… isn’t it? A teacher chatting with her student minutes before midnight? (Wait a minute! Now I know why I’m allowing my 6^th grade students to bother me in YM in unholy hours! Gee...)

mIRC is like gluttony. It is an over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. I was over indulged to the point that I didn’t notice I was wasting my time.

Good thing I’m finally over with mIRC. I downloaded the program last year and tried to relive the good old chatting days. A few months ago, I caught myself deleting the program from my drive after realizing that I need to move on…


Luxuria

In 2001, I graduated in high school, interestingly in mIRC also. By the time I was in college, Yahoo! Messenger (YM) was a hit. My college years wouldn’t be complete without YM. It served as a meeting place for class reports, consolidating facts for a term paper, conveying holiday coursework, and so on… Indeed, it was very helpful in my academic life.

But time came when I religiously open my account to meet other people. I get their accounts from Yahoo! Groups, some from other social networking sites. Lechery became an issue. It was lechery in the sense that I am engrossed with sociological compulsions. I easily fell for those whom I met online. Subconsciously, I submitted myself to Dante’s criterion of “excessive love of others.” Besides, it became an excessive reason to stay online…


Ira

Friendster awed the world when it was launched in March 2002. Nevertheless, it was only in November 2003 when I joined the said Internet social networking service, months before TV Patrol had their primetime news about its phenomenal hit among Filipino netizens.

If I’m not mistaken, blogging in friendster started only in the year 2005, by this time, blogging became the outlet of my angst. I blogged about getting a 4.00 in my Biology class, posted a copy of the lyrics of my theme songs for the one my hypothalamus is crazy with, worst, I even ranted about losing my very first job thru my Friendster blog. Indeed, friendster was a witness on how I manifested a vehement denial of the truth. It became my tool in my inward expression of wrath.


Invidia

Having only one social networking account did not content me. In August 15, 2007, I created my Multiply account. I was so envious of my college friend/housemate who discreetly maintains a personal website thru Multiply.Multiply was overtly better than Friendster. I can post there my narcissistic pictures, attach the videos I love the most, upload the songs that had been running thru my head lately, easily review the last movie I watched or the book I’m trying to finish for the past 15 months, continue to blog about my rants and raves in life, and many more. The best part of this, you can easily filter those whom you want to have connections.

My Multiply is very private. I only connect to my friends, schoolmates, classmates, and some online acquaintances with it. It is not infested by any of my past/present/future students, unlike my Friendster account, which is undeniably spammed by messages from them.

Because of that envy, now I believe that I have a better page in Multiply than my friend.


Superbia

YouTube’s slogan “Broadcast Yourself,” is perfect for anyone who wanted to show his or her excessive love of him/herself.

Last March 30, I created a YouTube account just to upload the short films my students made as their project for my subject. Pride gave me the courage to create an account, and later uploaded their videos. It was not actually my work; it was their fruit of labor. It was a plain act of desire to be more important than others.


Avaritia

Chatting with a high school classmate thru YM opened me to the possibility of gaining extra income thru blogging. With her recommendations, I opened my Blogger account in March 8, 2008. It instantly became the outlet of my overflowing thoughts. I redirected the stress I am giving myself by writing them down. Hence, there are also moments when I purposely stress out myself, especially when I have nothing to write about.

Greedy as it may seem, but the very first reason for me to open a Blogger account was just for personal gain.

But hey! After five months of maintaining a Blogger account, I don’t even have a PayPal account up to this very moment, nor incorporate an AdSense widget on my page.


Acedia

I am blaming Plurk for my blogging hiatus. It had been exactly 35 days since my last post here at blogspot. Since I created a Plurk account last July 13, I had enrolled myself into a full time micro-blogging post-graduate degree. Being a portmanteau of ‘play’ and ‘work,’ Plurking ate most of my valuable time for the past four weeks.

Plurking is not only an outlet of attention deficit people, like me; but also it is a social networking service for attention deficit people, like me. Thru Plurk I’ve met a writer-columnist in a national newspaper, a magician-at-night-DJ-at-late-night, a New York film & music producer and publicist, a photographer, an accountant, a researcher, and other e-celebrities. In other words, geeks who have nothing else to do on a Sunday night (well, aside from blogging).

Despite the fun and excitement of meeting new acquaintances, I admit that I’ve lost track of my own time because of plurking. I am guilty of not doing my work beyond what is required of me. I am very unwilling to do my real work, lazy and indifferent to my real profession. Being a natural born procrastinator, I slept not earlier than 3am for the past 10 days just to finish four exams and Plurk most of the time.

Yes, I know, I am a sloth.








Gluttony. Lust. Wrath. Envy. Pride. Greed. Sloth.


In the end, we go back to the ultimate question whether cyberlife is successful in exterminating real life intimacy. My answer to this query, and basing it on my personal experiences in this ambiguous and ambivalent world of the World Wide Web —is definitely NO. It even led me into treasured real life intimacies —intimacies that are now just part of the memories of a melancholic guru.


Nevertheless, vicious, as it may seem, the cyber world still made me realize that the principles of temperance, chastity, patience, kindness, humility, charity, and diligence are more essential and imperative in this 'real' world full of uncertainties.

This is my entry to the Blog Challenge 06: The Virtual Vice.

OVER: the week that was!

I know. And I am very sorry. I know that I do owe you all a lot.

So let me start my soliloquy by accounting all my eustress for the last week of June 2008...

23^rd of June, Mesmerized Monday

‘Frank’ spared me from lecturing in the laboratory this day. However, he didn’t spare the lives of hundreds of people aboard MV Princess of the Stars, nor the ill-fated citizens of Western Visayas.

I guess my friend is right, Sulpicio Lines should start changing their line of business into Sulpicio Funeral Homes after all of those maritime mishaps.

I do remember boarding Princess of the Stars three years ago. It was a trip to Cebu for the 2005 National Youth Science, Technology, and Environment Summer Camp. It was only tonight when I finally decided to look up for my remembrance of that trip. Here it is:

I vividly remember how huge that ship was. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the largest vessel I’ve boarded. Who would believe that it would succumb to ‘Frank’ that easily?

24^th of June, Thrilling Tuesday

While those living in Manila were enjoying their very long weekend holiday, I myself was indeed exuberant upon receiving my very first credit card. Many thanks to my orgmate’s blockmate in college who is also my co-teacher’s schoolmate in high school and grade school. Oh never mind the intertwined relationships!

In exactly 21 days, I received my HSBC credit card with a credit limit of Php*****.00. (I’ll keep it to myself coz you might be able to figure out how underpaid my profession is).

Nevertheless, just as an ‘old’ friend warned me not so long time ago, I swear from this day on that I wont use my card that much every time I pay a visit to the mall.

Using it twice in every visit is a good idea…right? What do you think?

25^th of June, Wednesday Workout

One thing that made me very excited this day is the fact that it’s the first day of classes for my Photoshop class. Yippee! I’m glad to be a student once again. Teacher Niño, the school’s Art teacher, opened his graphic arts class for the school’s grown ups. So, who are my classmates? Teacher Lilia (the Filipino teacher), Teacher Ana (the School Registrar), and ultimately, Teacher Gracel (the School Principal).

At least now, I can edit already the pictures I’m posting here in my site (without using Paint!). Hehe.

See for yourself!

26^th of June, Thursday Tautness

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-6

This is what the Lord impressed to me upon waking up from a dream before 3 in the morning. Thou I know that I had a hard time the whole day figuring out what am I supposed to do with my vision, the Lord assured to me my actions at the end of the day. "Mission accomplished," I would say. Thus, just as a colleague remarked the following day, this is just the beginning for me, I know that there are still a lot more things He prepared for me.

27^th of June, Friday Fiasco

Even without enough sleep the other night, I still accompanied my class to their field trip to the Quezon City Central Post Office. It was also my first time inside a big post office. Despite my fascination on how they were able to sort and deliver all of those snail mails in the biggest city in Metro Manila, I was disgruntled at the same time by the actual condition of the post offices in the country. It seems that everything was a makeshift in that post office, from the packets where they sort the mails, to the used sacks of rice they use in delivering the mails to the other central post offices. Ridiculous, I may say.

Good thing my students still enjoyed the entire trip to the dilapidated post office. (Taken for granted that it was their first time to actually mail a ‘real mail’).

28^th of June, Saturated Saturday

Work doesn’t end for me on a Saturday. By 7:15 am, I was at the school already 'coz we’re headed to Grace Christian High School for the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools – Science (ICASS). Two of my students joined the said competition. But since I have angst about this competition, I’ll be posting soon another entry about it.

After the contest, we returned to our school 'coz by 3 o’clock pm, we had the first Parent Interaction Hour (PIH). It’s an orientation for our student’s parents for the new school year (some sort of a PTA meeting).

At 8 pm, I had an organic dinner with a girl friend in a nearby vegetarian resto. But since I was not happy with my tall glass of homemade mango yogurt, I insisted to her that we should drink a bottle of –OH. Good thing she was not happy either with her cute mug of hot chocolate drink. And so we both drink a bottle of –OH.

And the rest is history...

29^th of June, Shopping Sunday

What is the best way to formally end an entire week of eustress other than shopping? Answer: more shopping.

Today is the first time I used my credit card. And the first thing I bought with it are my…

Then I also bought a…

…and I lived happily ever after…

THE END

LP Writing Tilt

Hey teacher!

Have you heard of the latest challenge staged by the Philippine Daily Inquirer?

It’s a lesson plan-writing contest!

Rules are simple: just write a lesson plan that utilizes the pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. And viola! You will win a laptop!

All active teachers throughout the country are allowed to join the said competition! Hmmm… since my PRC No. is 0917198, and more or less 20,000 others passed the 2007 and 2008 board exams, I therefore conclude that it’s a head-to-head between me and the 900,000++ other teachers out there! Great. Now I just lost all of the sugar in my blood. (But how about those who are teaching already but haven’t taken the LET yet? Darn.)

Anyway, “the lesson plan must be original, unpublished, clear, concise, and adaptable for grades 4-7 and high school years 1-4.”


Isn’t it that exciting?! So what are you waiting for? Extract now your creative juices while clicking here for more details.


Happy lesson planning!