Archive for August, 2008
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
This happened a couple of days ago, when my teacher in ME 63 told us that we’re gonna be having our 4th Long Exam the next day, even if we haven’t discussed the topic (unsteady state, unsteady flow or USUF) to be covered in the exam.
I was panicking; that day, the ES 12 exam hasn’t been rescheduled yet to Monday and its schedule is supposed to be today. So technically, I would have to maximize my time tor ES 12, ME 63 and ES 1 — all exams scheduled one after another.
I made my homework in ES 21; I summarized my notes so that I won’t be worrying much of it, since our teacher said the exam will benext Wednesday. Then, I wrote articles for the UPDOSTSA newsletter, a sample letter for the Brain MEsh. I also conceptualized the program format and schedule for the affair (since I am the coordinator for the event). All of these are due the next day, mind you.
It took me until 10 to 11 pm to finish all the paper works so I moved on to solving problems in my ES 12 book. This subject requires much time and it has been my daily routine to answer at least three problems — even if a lot of the questions, I couldn’t answer easily or I couldn’t answer at all.
Around 12:30, I decided to open my ME 63 book and answer the problem set the teacher gave us. I have nothing to worry since I have read the coverage earlier that day. I just need some time to answer the five challenging questions she gave us. I wouldn’t want to rely on the solutions manual of the book, since it won’t give me much learning. So I strove hard to answer the problems, I actually did — four of them I answered correctly, when I checked the solutions. Until it was already 2 am and all my roommates were asleep — or so as I think.
My choosy and most of all sensitive roommate, we will name Mons, was still awake. Apparently, he can’t sleep with the lights turned on. And so explains why he’s been so magalaw and balisa when I thought he was sleeping already. Though at times, he’s going out of the room, I thought, to take a pee. But it seems like he’s bursting in anger because I’m still up, he can’t sleep because I’m using the lights.
This is the lamest problem I have encountered with a roommate. He then murmured things such as bwisit and nakakainis. He punches the wall quite a few times. He makes the dabog sound. It was really really rude. I stayed silent so that he won’t be triggered into doing something more violent.
All I was hoping is for him to stop his childish acts and let me do my thing so that I can finish onto the fifth problem and as per his wishes, I can turn off the lights.
The scene’s not new to me anymore. He always does that. If his rules weren’t manifested, we get to have this “love letter” along with his ugly (and when I say ugly — I mean ugly!) handwriting, full of rants and pleads as if we’ve been so inconsiderate for the nth time to him.
Part of his letter: “I need my sleep! Maging considerate ka naman…” yada yada yada. This is only the third time that it happened, or fourth time? And the first time it happened after the last one, last month when he told me to do my stuff earlier — for the nth time. I’ve been considerate enough the past weeks since I don’t have a busy load but hell does he care if I turn the lights on. He’s not the only one living in the room. I have a fourths share of it, and his wish that if I exceed the 12 MN limit that I go to the lobby so that he can sleep — and me uncomfortably reviewing outside, pestered by mosquitoes and possibly — boredom attacks = NOT REALLY AN IDEAL SITUATION for someone who’s cramming for an unannounced examination the next day.
I won’t let him bully me. I have this feeling that he can’t sleep because he’s more focused on bugging me and wanting the lights turned off rather than him concentrating, covering his eyes with his mattress, and trying to sleep. I have been tolerant enough.
I vow not to obey all his rules. I can accept some — but he cannot put me in a position that won’t make me or my other roommates be comfortable, in our own room.
Can’t he just mind his own business? If he studies outside or inside, the hell I care, as much as he won’t whistle when I’m still asleep (correction: when my other two roommates and I are still asleep), as long as he won’t bang the door everytime he goes out of the room, as long as he won’t drop his kitchen utensils in a padabog manner after he eats his breakfast and we’re still asleep, ’cause its much more annoying than just having the lights turned on.
These issues aren’t really big of a deal. Its not even worthy of the space I allotted here, but I just have to rant in his doings, I can’t let it pass. He’s not the boss, as he thinks he is.
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To YOU:
You’re no baby. If you’re spoiled, then you have to straighten up things and face the reality. You can’t always expect for people to do everything as you want. You can’t expect us to attend your scheduled general clean-up ’cause we’re much more of the “kapag natripan maglinis, tara linis tayo” type of persons. We clean our places regularly naman. Kung OC ka, ‘wag mo kami idamay. When our place looks messy, it means that we’re too busy and we can’t find time to clean up the mess. If we have time, then we will. Relatively, our room looks like new pa nga, unlike other rooms, when I enter, sobrang makalat.
Most of all, as you said, we are old enough to clean our own mess. So, we don’t need you nagging us to clean our places ’cause we will — when we find time. I always try to make it less irritating to your eyes but you’re too OC talaga and its hard to keep up with someone who has set the standards already; and won’t really consider your reasons, even if given a valid explanation.
———
If he doesn’t like what he’s seeing, he has the option to leave the dormitory OR ask the OSH for him to transfer rooms. As long as I and my other roommates are in good terms, on the same views as to what should be implemented within the premises of our room — I’m good, we’re good; without someone like him who rants a lot, dictates a lot, shouts a lot, dribbles a lot, boasts a lot and talks a lot.
Piece of advice, mind your own business! Get irritated when its uber OA na talaga and not for lame reasons like, “I can’t sleep because the lights are on!”, I have valid reasons why I have to be awake until the wee hours of the morning. I am doing something relevant, not just playing DOTA. I start my work early and I don’t even waste my time to play any sport — even if I wanted to.
Either you’re lucky enough, you have plenty of time for such lazing or you’re the one who’s not doing your work early and the one who has no sense of time.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Saturday, August 23rd, 2008
The Upsilon Sigma Phi organized a T-Shirt Design Contest to commemorate the heroism of the late Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Sr.
So, I made two designs. I actually didn’t plan to join but my ex-roommate told me that I might win the 5,000 bucks prize. But, I was too lazy to make more intricate designs so I settled for these simple ones:
NINOY IDOLO NG PINOY  I AM WORTH DYING FOR 
But this one won, maybe due to the creativity factor. An image of Ninoy Aquino’s half-face with the LIVE Design. Very clever design, aight? Personally, the yellow color doesn’t work for me.
My design “Ninoy: Idolong Pinoy” made it to the Top 10, and as consolation, I won a T-shirt. The judges were from Team Manila To view more of this, click here.
Anyway, enjoy your day off on Monday and celebrate the heroism, the fight of the great Ninoy Aquino for the Filipinos.
Indeed, we should prove that we are worth dying for.
This way, I have participated in the Ninoy Aquino commemoration. As for me, I have an exam on Monday. And it’s gonna be heart-breaking and headaching day for me. I hope not. Popularity: 1% [?]
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
ABOUT MY BLOG AND OTHER RACKETS
Sorry for leaving my blog for almost three weeks without a single update. It caused my Google Adsense earnings to dwindle down from almost a dollar a day to zero earnings in the past couple of weeks. But I still love Google since I can be assured that in the near future, I’ll be having a laptop. Yes, I am almost certain that by the end of this year, I’ll be having a laptop! Well, apart from Adsense, I make reviews and been into the SEO business through Miss Dine for whom I write articles for some blogs. I also engaged into tutorials and review centers.
Now you know what I’ve been into for the past weeks.
ACADEMICS
Even my academics won’t spare me a bit. I had three major exams the past week. And two of them are on the same day. I really hope I pass them. I really need to finish this semester without any failing mark.
So today, our classes were suspended here in UP Diliman. Aside from the supposed-to-be “long weekend” which spans from Saturday up to tomorrow, we had another day off of our hectic school life. But then again, I had a class last Monday since we’re really behind with the lessons.
Yesterday, I’ve scheduled a date with my organization buddy Jose since they’re required to do so, but I backed off since I’m in for a terror Saturday. I have two exams on Saturday, yes, this coming Saturday. And I really have to prepare for it.
To top it all, our ME 63 (Thermodynamics) teacher gave us a bunch of homework to be submitted tomorrow. She also announced today that our 4th Long Exam will be tomorrow. Kamusta naman ‘yon?
Pinoy Idol
Last Saturday, August 16, the Pinoy Idol Final Performance Night was staged at SMX Convention Center, at the SM Mall of Asia. And as expected, it was crappy. An hour full of boring performances and out-of-tune singers. I can’t believe that I was actually watching the Top 3 out of the thousands who have auditioned for the competition.
The Idol franchise has been the most prestigious singing competition worldwide. In 2006, ABC 5, now TV5 sought the franchise from Fremantle Media and on December 2006, Mau Marcelo won over the frontrunners Jan Kurt Nieto and Gian Magdangal. Though her fans seem to be not visible aftermath, they resort to buying her albums and in in December of 2007, she represented the Philippines in the first ever Asian Idol.
Then, GMA 7 snatched the franchise from ABC 5 (who has been planning big for a season 2). And the rest is history…
That brought us the first ever GMA 7 Pinoy Idol Gretchen Espina, who’s a University of the Philippines student, by the way. She’s taking up BA European Languages and is in her graduating year when she joined the show. Greta is the daughter of the Biliran governor. She auditioned for Philippine Idol but she didn’t even make it up to the Top 40.
The show has been criticized from its very first airing. It was not able to live up to the expectations that the viewers and Idol fans. From bad hosting to the show being not live. From a variety show director directing it to its mode of voting (limiting it to texting only). Better contestants being eliminated to Pinoy Idol Extra bloating drama. From unclear acoustics, ugly stage and irritating lightings to its truly fugly timeslot. From its incompetent judges to incompetent finalists making it to Top 12 (such as Sue Ellen, Warren Antig, Gretchen Espina).
Mediocre talents. Mediocre production. Inconsistencies in gala performances and elimination nights. Sometimes, there’s an intro performance, sometimes none. Sometimes, there’s a recap, sometimes none. Sometimes all of the judges comments, sometimes not. Judges being inconsistent to the finalists; commenting negatively to actually good performers and complementing the ones who should’ve been out since the start.
They have very poor cinematography. They don’t know how to give drama to the performances. Everything’s a mess. Bara-bara. It seems like the show was done just to get it done and over with. Total may IDOL naman sa title.
I believe that they should really have a reality check! The winner is crappy, just as crappy as the show is. Don’t ever blame it to the audience since you were the ones who chose the Top 24. And what’s with the duplicating of songs per Idol? Kid Camaya even outsang the finalist Jayann Bautista with I’ll Never Love This Way Again.
Next, they weren’t able to indulge the audience to vote for their favorites, which brought us to relatives and close friends being the only ones who are voting on who’ll stay or not; I believe that Gretchen Espina won because of this. ABC 5 even beat them to it, producing a quality winner even if the other contenders are known to be “rich”. Still, the deserving one won.
I knew it, since Bev Ejercito, Meryl David and Walton Zerrudo getting the boot Pre-finals stage, this franchise would be a shoutfest, and crappy in its truest sense. That’s why I immediately made the site Vote for the Worst Pinoy: Iboto ang Lagpak. The site has proven to be a success, for a lot of people, after the elimination of Mae Flores, Penelope, Robby Navarro and Kid Camaya has really made efforts to encourage people to vote for Gretchen Espina or Warren Antig— aiming to stop GMA 7 murdering the Idol show.
Even some of the Top 24 that I have talked to couldn’t agree more on how this show got downplayed to a Pinoy Pop Superstar-type of singing contest.
The show is nowhere close to AMERICAN IDOL, not even a spec of PHILIPPINE IDOL.
Bring the show back to where it belongs, bring it back to TV5.
I would have spared Pinoy Idol an ounce of respect if it manipulated the results come Final Three and included either Daryl Celis or Kid Camaya into it. But they didn’t, and now we resort to a crappy winner. A dismayed runner-up.
I remember the Philippine Idol finale to be grandeus, magical and like a concert being shown in TV. It topbilled and headlined top papers in the country.
Pinoy Idol, I can only hear the sound of crickets aftermath.
BEIJING OLYMPICS SPELLS PHELPS
 Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps. Olympics is equal to Michael Phelps. Need I say more.
He has garnered eight gold medals in a single olympics! GAWWD.
And come on! A total of sixteen medals! What the.
GOSSIP GIRL
And it’s really back! I miss the show. I really hope that it won’t disappoint me. The Season 1 Finale was such a bore. But this promotional poster is intriguing.
PINOY DREAM ACADEMY: LAARNI OWNAGE!
Even though I have lots and lots of extra-curriculars, I still find time to watch this show. What makes it more appealing is that it has scholars full of personality. Currently, Laarni Losala is my favorite. For me, Bugoy has a good voice but not a winner material. Liezel and Cris lacks personality. I am predicting a Van-Sen-Laarni final three.
I HEART BETTY LA FEA
One of the shows that I’m looking forward to air. What’s best is that they retained the Bea Alonzo-John Lloyd Cruz tandem which just suits the concept of the show. I am uber excited.
LIPGLOSS
Last August 8, ABC 5 officially signed off and TV 5 replaced it and one of the shows that I really enjoyed is this: Lipgloss! It’s a Gossip Girl spinoff but the blogger is revealed and its a guy (Sam Concepcion). It’s getting really exciting.
Anyway, that’s about it. Random things, huh? I hope that I was able to fill you in with the recent happenings!
I have to prepare for my ME 63 exam for tomorrow!
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
Here’s a blog post from a bitter very opinionated blogger , named Dennis that made UP bloggers and other bloggers go wild at Plurk last night.
UP students are not supposed to be called “Iskolar ng Bayan” (Scholar of the Nation). They are “paying scholars”. If you are paying more or less PHP 21, 000, would you really feel that you are indeed a “Iskolar ng Bayan”? Upon enrollment, UP students get in line to pay for their tuition holding wads of cash roughly four times thicker than those from New Era University would pay for. I am sure that we don’t need figures, charts, and statistics to prove the veracity of my claim.
Had it been somebody from PUP, PLM, PNU, TUP, or any state university/college who boasted himself as “Iskolar ng Bayan”, I am inclined to agree. Otherwise, if it’s from UP who claims such, I will maintain the same incredulous revulsion.
Braggart, think twice! Admit it or not, you don’t deserve to be called “Iskolar ng Bayan”… in the true sense of the word.
First of all, UP is not a state university but is now the National University of the Philippines.
I do think that his comments are too literal. He based it solely on the financial state or cost of education in the university.
For me, it is not really a big deal if we’re calling ourselves as Iskolar ng Bayan; we brand ourselves as such because people pay for a part of our tuition fees. Our tuition fee might get as high as P21,000 but we are still subsidized by the government (06 and below, most specially who only pay P300/unit). The colleges and programs plus other UP chapters’ budget are all handled by the government; we get a tiger share from the funds alloted for the national universities. In fact, 75% of the whole fund is alloted to us and that’s why we claim that we are Iskolars ng Bayan.
The accusation is too hasty. We are the best of the best, thus we still deserve to be called as Scholars, since we do excel. The fake scholars title point-blank gives me such anger to the author of the blog entry.
He even asked this: Do you really deserve the “label” accorded to you?
And I will answer it with my head up high: Yes. We do deserve the label accorded to us. You see, the label does not limit us of the cost of education or what the heck increase in tuition fee. The service, excellence and the principles embedded in our curriculum plainly magnifies us being worthy of such label.
We admit that the tuition fee increased by a huge percentage but that does not discount us from being scholars. We get quality education. We manage to excel and stand out amongst others.
We don’t claim that we are the ONLY ISKOLARs ng BAYAN, but we claim ourselves as such. We justify ourselves by being the best in any path we take. We give back and we do our best to deserve such privilege.
Off Topic:
He doesn’t even know that it’s good if he’s getting hits. Moreover, he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
I don’t want to get personal. He said he could’ve enrolled his MA here at UP. Well, good enough you didn’t. You don’t deserve to be labeled as ISKOLAR ng BAYAN.
In fairness, I got irritated with his post.
Note:
I just can’t take it that he called us FAKE. I mean, UP students as Fake Scholars.
FOR ME, the term “ISKOLAR NG BAYAN” is more than pride, privilege or what; it is a challenge for us, UP students to strive hard and prove that we are the best in any way we’re heading. That we deserve to be labeled as such because we can prove that we are indeed ISKOLARs ng BAYAN.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
Definitely, Kid Camaya of Pampanga is the best of the remaining six as Pinoy Idol reaches its third to the last week.
It is confirmed that more than one contestant will be going home tonight. Allegedly, this will be the biggest elimination night in the history since it would be eliminating three Idol hopefuls.
Here’s Kid Camaya’s most recent performance in the Basil Valdez Night, singing Paano Ba Mangarap?
I had goosebumps at the start and at the end of the song and pretty much teary-eyed at the ending too. It’s Kid’s night and I hope he gets through! Please save him by keying in IDOL KID and send to 2344/367.
The Finale will be on August 17 at the ARANETA COLISEUM.  Popularity: 1% [?]
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