Unbounded

I ran an errand for my mom yesterday. she told me to buy some contact lens solution.

As I was too self-absorbed thinking about other things (I was going to meet some of the bipolar committee members for a reunion dinner), I forgot that the optical shop was just at the entrance of Gateway mall and I passed by it, which was really weird because Fully Booked is always my first stop! (the optical shop's about 3 boutiques away) (Dope #1).

I then circled the mall for half an hour and frustratingly decided that I should go look for one in Farmer's, an adjacent mall. After walking around for another 20 minutes, I got tired and went to the bathroom.

While there, my necklace broke and my ring pendants fell to the floor. I asked the sanitation engineer (the janitor. lol) to help me look for it and he used his DIRTY MOP to sweep the rings off the floor. (dope#2) WTF was that?! (I immediately sterilized my silver rings with alcohol the moment I got home)

Pissed, and after buying a new necklace in a nearby booth, I continued looking for that 'friggin elusive optical shop.

So after casually browsing for another 10 minutes, I still couldn't find one and I finally decided to ask the security guard for directions (typical guy reluctant to ask for directions).

me: "sir, san po rito may optical shop, yung para sa mata?" (<-- take note of the second phrase) [sir, where can I find an optical shop in this mall? You know, the one for the eyes?]

guard: (pauses to think) "ah, direcho ka lang diyan tapos akyat ka sa third floor, pag kanan mo nandoon na iyon malapit sa mrt station." [ah, you just go straight ahead and go up to the third floor, turn right and you'll see it. It's near the MRT station]

me: "ok salamat po!" [ok, thank you sir!]

Finally. some progress. The guard was even confident with his directions. I felt relieved.

I went up the escalator.

It turns out that the security guard pointed me to an OSAKA IRIDOLOGY CLINIC. (dope#3) WTF?!

-----

I couldn't discern whether I should laugh at what transpired or be really pissed off.

On the 13

I woke up at around two in the morning yesterday (March 29), getting only two hours of sleep, so I was naturally pissed. I then decided to do some photoshopping (I consider graphic designing as therapeutic. Very much like Christopher doing math problems. lol).

Noticing that our group blog, ([link]) needed a more personal layout (as it now dons a generic green layout), I took on the challenge (or the leisure if you will) of making one. Here's what I came up with ([link]). It's supposed to be a header banner of us, the 13 - the thirteen most frequent guys that hang around in our friend Jim's place (Yes, it's a little rushed, but I wanted it to be done by noon so that I could get some more sleep and to prepare myself for other things later in the day).

From left to right: P3, Wil, me, Stip, Jim, Eug and Dodong; Pe (with Pia), Les, Jeco, Odell, Jed and Janny.

If you've seen those i-pod commericials (well to my knowledge, it isn't being shown here in the Philippines), it's partly 'inspired' by those.

We're thinking of removing Janny from the core but we can't think of a replacement yet.

He's our token black guy. heheh.

..Now if only I could figure out the blogger code tags. I'm basically an ignorant when it comes to scripting (that's why I couldn't help piere out on his flash presentation about plastics).

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On Photoshopping

I never really intended to be hooked with graphic design. I was actually unaware before of those kinds of things existed. Well, actually, I was unaware of a lot of tech things before. I didn't own a computer then.

When I finally bought one in sophomore high, Wil showed to me ps 5.5, and bragged that his brother was really good at it and stuff (well he's really good). Anyway, he told me that I should try it out , so I then tried tinkering with it, and the rest was history.

For me, it's an outlet for expression (upon the realization that I needed formal drawing skills), and oddly enough, it's also my way of reducing stress.

There's something about creating something that I find 'serene'. Like writing.

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On Plans

Since I've been talking about stress, I would like to say that I've been finding myself to be more and more stressed out lately.

Lots of thoughts about my plans in life (well now that college is over) are bugging me. Sleepless nights, irritability, mood swings, incoherent thoughts (hmm. nothing much has really changed actually. lol.) , are a staple.

But I really couldn't figure out why I'm this stressed out (it's either I couldn't identify my stressors, or I'm just denying its existence).

Career? Education? Relationships? Ack. It dreads me just to think about it.

I have to face them eventually. So hey, it's just a matter of one's frame of reference.

*I plan to get a master's degree, most likely on Clinical Psychology. Just out of curiousity, and for the sake of pursuing a higher body of knowledge. It's not happening anytime soon as I have to be self-sufficient first.

*I plan to be in a line of work where I'm enjoying it, despite its nature or job pay (bookstore manager, graphic designer, HR, HR training, counselling, writing. HAH! MANAGINIP KA!).

*I plan to try it out in the field of education. Hey, why not? It looks like fun. (teaching General Psychology as an elective subject or Statistics, or to be the school counsellor. Not bad.)

*I plan to go to the US in the near future, along with my friends, to seek greener pasture.

And lastly, on relationships.

eeek.

I would like to point out that I never had any relationships. I'm single since birth and single by choice.

Many ask why. Some look up on it. Most look down. 'why the hell are you still single? What ever happend to flirting around?'

I choose to be single and I'm proud of it (to the guy who said that comment on flirting, I'm going to punch you straight in the jaw the next time you bring it up with that arrogant tone of yours. And because you still haven't returned my book Sybil. My flirty days are over).

I do not choose to fit in with all the rest of the people whose brains are in their crotches.

I do not flirt with shallow skanks just so that I could reinforce my machismo (well I'm guilty for a number of times. But that time is now long gone).

If you've ever heard of Harris' 'I kissed dating goodbye', 'boy meets girl', and this third one about purity; if you've ever heard of Warren's 'purpose driven life', and I'm sure that you guys have, I am convinced that all of them are just pieces of trash.

Don't get me wrong, their intentions are good, and at times noble, but some of its ideas are inhumanly possible.

People are just not made like that.

I sometimes would like to think that they just cash in on people's faith and insecurities.

Might as well use the books as coasters or as my dogs' chewtoys.

To the people who treat these kinds of books as their bibles, use your old noodles. Realize what's humanly and inhumanly possible. Don't be mindless robots.

*..Returning to my previous line of thought: yes I'm single, but when the proper opportunity comes, that I would be able to meet that woman, who's a great conversationalist, who's got similar tastes (and distastes. lol), and who's got an equally evil personality as mine, yes. I wouldn't let that opportunity slip way.

The hell with looks, I'm going to be too swept off my feet to mind about that. Lol.

The pressure from my friends (that we should be scoring around with 'chicks'. It was a nice idea, stroking your machismo. But senseless) and family (I'm male, and I'm an only child) are great, but hey, It's my life that I'm living here.

I'm just traditional. Bug off.

It's nice to be in a relationship but for now, we should be enjoying our single lives.

Ugh. Enough mushiness.

(why the hell did I write this in the first place??)

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On Jobs

I'm very picky when it comes to the career line to work on (that's why I'm still bumming around).

No, I'm not lazy. Some companies have actually called me, I've also tried to apply on some, and (reluctantly) attended job fairs.

It's not that I look down on telemarketing (actually my thesis was about call center work), but I find it offending when companies call you if I would be interested in considering a career in that line of work. Lots of companies called (including big companies offering achievement-based pay for employees, who are also willing to be assigned in various locations. In other words AHENTE [a sales agent]).

A number of companies called, and upon knowledge of its nature, let's just say that 'Xiao Huang', my pet Miniature Pinscher enjoyed conversing with them. Let's leave it at that.

When it comes to applying, I've also tried my hand at those. I actually sent my resume to Fully Booked (it's a distinguished high-end bookstore here in the Philippines, and my second home) just to see if I'm competitive enough in the market. But the real reason was that I found out that Cai, one of my friends in college found work in National Bookstore, and I became envious. heheh.

Being the smart-ass that I am, I now seriously think that they would consider hiring me if I didn't put in the phrase '...fresh meat, err, fresh college graduate...'

Dope.

Here's to my dream of working in the bookstore and owning one. Well I hope not.

As if my ego was not insulted enough, my friend Wil insisted that we visit the recent job fair exposition in SM Megamall (a huge middle-class mall in the Phils.), just to try out how competitive we are in the market.

It didn't sucked. It TERRIBLY sucked.

Half of the companies were telemarketing outsourcing firms, while half were rank-and-file job openings for unheard companies.

When you see liquor companies having job openings for highschool female graduates to be promotional models, when you see internet shops (internet cafe stores) having their own booths, it's an obvious signal to turn to the other way and not look back.

After going around the fair once (Well twice actually. Wil pretended to be casually browsing because someone he liked was there also), we immediately left and went to Powerbooks (another distinguished high-end bookstore in the Phils.) and spent the rest of the afternoon reading (and indirectly insulting people who try to act knowledgeable).

Well let's give them their fair share of the argument. It's plausible and logical to reason that it's a job fair geared more towards the masses.

And people ask me why I still don't have a job.

Screw them. I'm not done enjoying my free life.

-----

Enough random thoughts.

You think you have an interesting life. And for the most part, you do. You wake up, you go to your job, you go out in the weekends. You do everything you're supposed to do the way it's supposed to be done. But once in a while, there's a chance to do more, and you take it.

I read. I write. I create. I chat. I think. But most of all, I appreciate. Yes, they all matter to me because i make meaningful experiences out of them. Yet these are the small things in life that many neglect.

Giving up the whole afternoon just to read a Rosales novel; sharing your personal thoughts and opinions to someone you hardly know; baking macaroons as an expression of gratitude; helping someone to design a guidebook cover and not ask for anything in return just because you are passionate about it.

In this material world that we are living, there are far more things in life that money can't buy. People should start appreciating these small things and make meaning out of it.

My life can't just be interesting, it has to be meaningful.

As I was going up the stair
I met a man, who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today
I wish, I wish he'd go away.

[first of four parts]

March 27, 2006

I have been staring at the blank computer screen for the longest time and I’ve finally decided to put all my thoughts into writing.

All thoughts, relevant experiences, and ideas that should be shared and passed on to the succeeding batch of officers. My way of knotting all the loose ends. My way of closing this particular chapter. My EVP dossiers.

First, the easy part. All of my SMS files are now burned in 5 CD’s.

Now hard part, writing all of the ideas. I have a number of observations and recommendations on different isses and I will try to discuss everything to the best of my abilities in this letter. I’ve divided them into four parts:

1.0 On Activities in General
2.0 On Being an EVP
3.0 On Development
4.0 On Philosophies

Quite a serious tone no? Nah. Just my two cents.

Now prepare to be bored to death. Read on..


-Glenn


-----


1.0 On Activities in General

1.1 Tradition

"I don't want anybody buying my life's work and turning it into something it wasn't meant to be. A man wants to leave something behind the way he made it. And he wants it to be run the way he ran it...with a sense of honor, of dedication, of truth."
-Bill Parish

I believe Mr. Parish’s humble words of wisdom sums everything, even to the tiniest of details (If you must ask who Mr. Bill Parish is, he’s the guy Sir Anthony Hopkins played in Meet Joe Black. This was in reference to the issue where a company buyout was imminent). When it comes to activities, it’s only logical that successful activities be kept and improved while activities that flopped be reassessed and changed if necessary. Now with that line of thinking comes Tradition - where you retain the qualities of the time and tested activities. Reputation will naturally follow and play its part.

Here are a number of recurring activities from other organizations that seem to follow a tradition (and solid participation from its members if I might add):

• Business Management Society’s Practicum Bazaar.
• Society of Philosophy in Action’s Talk series.

Albeit that these activities are actually academically related and ties up with their departments, hence its natural recurrence, they have their weights.

• Ateneo Junior Marketing Association’s Shindig
• Chemistry Society’s Lab paraphernalia selling

These two examples are extremes – the former being an annual grandiose acquaintance party, while the latter is a small scale activity.

I’m not saying that we blindly follow suit. What I want to point out rather is that we retain the identity of activities that are proven successful. I’m talking about:

• Our annual culminating activities (Psyched).

Now actually, this tradition dates back to its founding year, but successful repackaging, branding, and marketing of the activity as Psyched in SY 2004-2005, along with its unique teaser release experienced relatively huge success.

In Psyched’05, Twenty-one individual designs were produced and posted around the campus to hype up the event. It had its share of controversy and hype when it was asked to be removed from posting by a professor of the Psychology department on the grounds that some of its depictions were “obscene”. The organization decided to decline and stressed that its sole intention was to show as holistic representation of the field, be it good or bad.

Adding to the air of controversy and hype was that a number of teaser posters were mysteriously missing. Speculations arose as to if it were stolen by the students or taken by the professor. The act was both flattering and frustrating. Flattering, because it was an act of appreciation. Frustrating, because a whole deal of investment was poured into its production and with the promotional materials stolen, information dissemination was weakened. The organization could not afford to produce more.

An example of unique and effective (and controversial if I may add) promotions.

• Our mid-year acquaintance party

In SY 2004-2005, the acquaintance party was organization wide and was dubbed Psychedelic Reloaded, in reference to Psychedelic, then the old branding of the annual culminating concert. It was a small scale but successful get-together in Intramuros.

But in SY 2005-2006, it expanded as a tie-up activity between Psyche of ADMU, Mandala and Psychedelics of UP, Miriam College’s Psychology Guild, and the Royal and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines’ Psychology Society (UST-Psychsoc for short. LOL). The event was named Bipolar: An extreme Psych party and was held in Elbow room, Metrowalk.

This was the first time ever that Psychology organizations collaborated to make one huge acquaintance party, uniting students of the same field in their respective schools.

It is also heartwarming to know that a number of other alliances took this as their benchmark, as they themselves planned to make one of their own (the Political Science alliance was once heard to be planning one but it did not push though. Psychfed will have a year end party in a bar in Taft avenue at the end of March, 2006.) social activities.

• Talks: (Piling Piling Araw, Dream Analysis, and other pop Psych talks)
• Convocations (AB and BS. Although this is a tie-up with the department, so it will naturally occur every schoolyear.)
• Information Dissemination activities (MD Awareness, WOW! SMS, etc.)
• Waiter for A Day
• The new SMS Mobile Library

If it works, stick with it. If not, consider revising or scrapping the next time around. It would be easier for both parties (the organization and members) since it’s less work for the organization to think up of new activities, and identification and recall to the members.

But what about it being too repetitive? That’s for you to discern.

1.2 Identity

The topic of “identity” is just about as important as “tradition”. My take on this is that as much as possible, established identities must be made on recurring/special activities. Logos, names, and time of release are but a few examples. Here are a few examples:

• Psyched
• SMS Reviewer Distributions
• Piling Piling Araw
• WOW! SMS
• MD Awareness
• Waiter for A Day
• Mobile Library

All are recurring activities and most have their own logos. All have established names and regular times at which they occur. It all helps with the identification by the members.

The key is consistency and recall.

1.3 Foresight

Plan everything from the members' perspective.

Members are naturally looking up to the activities at every start of the schoolyear and term (see related documents on member surveys). Give them a sense of foresight by providing them the list of upcoming activities and short descriptions as to what is to expected. Primers at the start of every term, General Activities, and Monthly updates are the most ideal venues.

Have this regularly done by the Internals and the Membership (which should do the duty of Human Resource) and I’m certain that it’ll take a big chunk on member participation. Most members admit that they are being left in the dark by not being aware of the incoming activities (see related documents on member surveys).

1.4 Minor Publications

Here’s a topic that’s close to my heart. Journalism. Minor publications are never appreciated. And there’s a reason as to why. What follows are excerpts from my previous post on the SMS yahoogroups:

...Well what I've noticed over the years was that organization newsletters suffered from poor layouting and insubstantial articles (some articles are even copy-pasted). So overall, it's a terrible investment of one's resources. The organization newsletters would just probably end up as dog poo wrappers.

Along with our organization's vision of elevating its standards (the newsletter actually experienced a major change when half of its articles were in Filipino, a resultant of the revolutionary themed year that was 2004), we repackaged our branding (and yet we failed miserably. It was an internal problem), we decided to revamp the newsletter. I stressed that the articles should have the usual news articles but should focus more on feature interviews/articles, as a way of humanizing the newsletter and ultimately, the organization's image…

…The idea was great, but sadly it wasn't lived up. To my knowledge, only one issue was produced (from the expected two issue per schoolyear change).

I sincerely hope the next batch of officers would carry on the organization's efforts of elevating its bar of professionalism [and specifically to the AVP for Publications]…

…We've sparked the fire, now it's your turn to set it ablaze.
So SMS officers batch 2006-2007, go kick ass.

My point then was that the organization should humanize the newsletter. I’ve noticed that for the past years, nobody really gave a hoot on reading what’s inside it. After all, most of it is about boring news articles about certain activities written in a way that it was grandiose. Add plagiarized articles, and the usual “fun page” (that’s never really fun since some of them have inside jokes that only the officers would get). Who would ever be interested in reading that?

Yes, it’s a whole lot of effort. Some may even see it as an efforts made in vain. I agree with that because it will not be initially appreciated. But with proper promotion, and especially dedication for the duty of making a quality publication, all one should think about is serving beyond the call of duty and raise the bar of excellence whenever he can.

[end of part 1]

[Ack. Pardon the sentence construction. Sleep deprivation. This one's a reprise on the one about "the best is yet to come", and on jim's countless inspirational posts. and to the person who said that we're all fucking retarded. Well sometimes we're not. But most of the time, we are. lol.]

I was reading Wil's resume last night when I saw that he mentioned about that cyberfair thingy again. Again I wondered: "hey, whatever happened to it nga ba?"...

You see, the server stopped hosting the files. And we thought that it was gone forever.

Not.

AGAIN, with nothing else better to do, I remembered that I had once sent a copy to a friend of mine. So I decided to rummage my old edsamail files.

Yes edsamail. the false promise that everything was supposed to be free. The free (well it was free then) email account that we oh so abused with forwarded messages. I always thought that saving the dump *.mbx files would be of use in the future (yes I know, what a dork).

After installing edsamail 1.3 and overwriting the mbx files, lo and behold - nostalgia minefield! All my fourth year highschool email messages still intact! From emails from Ms. Balubar and Mr. Magalit, to Pierre's email attachments on the air hockey and pool game that we used to play in the computer room when Ms. Balubar wasn't looking, to my personal email exchanges with some of my close friends, the same friend whom I've sent the files to. Who? Let's just say I found my old macaroon recepie while browsing my sent messages. lol.

Grabe. 2002. Can't help but smile and remember. lol. Ang totoy at nene pa. heheheh.

The site now has a new home: [link] (Pierre declined to host it because he felt too lazy to upload the files).

-----

But why all the hassle? Why reminisce a time that's long gone?

Because it's one of the things that will make us remember what it was like when we were in third and fourth year high. The time when we thought that we could conquer the world. The time when we thought that we could do anything. The time when we thought that we were the best senior batch in our school.

Puppy loves, crushes, chapel presentations, intramurals, and the occasional scandals. (" P*#$&!%@ ANONG MALI SA JOB PLAN KO???!!") Good times. =)

Well most of us are graduates now. And most forgot. All I'm asking is to look back and remember. Remember and make meaning out of it all.

After all, life's all about meaning making.

Here's to nostalgia. =)

[I originally posted this at [link]

It's almost impossible to surpass a Wilson post (and as what he said to me, that we souldn't really see this as a competion lol. I agree). Consider this instead as a humble homage filler post to elevate the "Robin Hood of pr0n" to a higher pedestal. [this is in reference to his entry where he pretended to be one of those online female chatters whose lady business is to provcatively tease customermers who send cellphone credits to him as payment (upon their assumption that the she was actually a he. then my friend would ditch them lol). "Show-for-load" as its more locally known here in the Philippines".

Basically my schmuck friend has earned about 1k already with his swindling racket lol. Kudos!]

-----

I've seen this once on the Discovery channel and wondered how I could get one of those face templates.

Anyway, one scientist once tried to calculate the perfect angles in the human face using the golden ratio of the Fibonacci number, that's 1.618 - the approximate proportion of shapes that provides its aesthetic appeal.

Shells, leaves, flowers are some of the things found in nature that exhibit this proportion (I couldn't find pictures to show to you guys. Sorry). So Dr. Marquardt (I'm logically guessing he's the dude behind it) made a wireframe face template of the "perfect face" based from his comparison computation of endless faces.

What you do is that you place this template over a mugshot portrait, and the closer the face resembles the template, the more attractive you are. More "perfect" if you will. From the same episode that I watched, Tom Cruise and umm, whats her name?... Cindy Crawford, both of them almost fit the template. Lol.

This golden ratio has also been a subject of pop controversy, most notably in the recent Dan Brown novel craze. The story goes that since 1.618, the fundamental ratio was the perfect ratio, well why not try it on Jesus?

So hey, here's a picture of the face mask that I've found at highfiber.org. Have fun.

[link]

[well this isn't really just for poetry but it's for everything else too. Never knew that Mr. Keating was an existentialist too. heh.]

"We don't read and write poetry because it is cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. Medicine, law and business are noble pursuits. They are necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance and love; these are what we stay alive for. You are here. Life exists, and identity. The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.

What will your verse be?"

-John Keating
DPS

CLASIKO.

In Filipino, it means classic. In SMS, it means Collge of Liberal Arts - Sikolohiya (Psychology). Basically, it's the Psychology newsletter produced by the Psych org of our college.

What many do not know (and fewer would care) is that the "I" from CLASIKO evolved from a "Y", but to be more accurate, from a "psi" (the thre pronged thing like the devil's/poseidon's pitchfork. It's the symbol for Psychology heh. Hey. Trivia.

Well what I've noticed over the years was that organization newsletters suffered from poor layouting, insubstantial articles (some articles are even copy-pasted), so overall, it's a terrible investment of one's resources. The organization newsletters would just probably end up as dog poo wrappers.

Along with our organization's vision of elevating its standards (the newsletter actually experienced a major change when half of its articles were in Filipino, a resultant of the revolutionary themed year that was 2004), we repackaged our branding (and yet we failed miserably. It was an internal problem), we decided to revamp the newsletter. I stressed that the articles should have the usual news articles but should focus more on feature interviews/articles, as a way of humanizing the newsletter and ultimately, the organization's image.

I also opted to help with the layouting and article editing, as a way of paying homage to my highschool journalism years, and to one of my mentors, Mr. Jefferlito Menguin (my HS friends will kill me if they find out about this lol).

The idea was great, but sadly it wasn't lived up. To my knowledge, only one issue was produced (from the expected two issue per schoolyear change).

I sincerely hope the next batch of officers would carry on the organization's efforts of elevating its bar of professionalism. Because after all, quoting Mr. Bill Parish:

"I don't want anybody buying my life's work and turning it into something it wasn't meant to be. A man wants to leave something behind the way he made it. And he wants it to be run the way he ran it...with a sense of honor, of dedication, of truth."

We've sparked the fire, now it's your turn to set it ablaze.
So SMS officers batch 2006-2007, go kick ass.

-----
here's the link for the pictures: [link]

here's the link for the pdf : [link]

Back in my sophomore college year, I once had a basic computer literacy subject. Yup, it's same as the ones in highschool where they teach you how to use the mouse, how to click the start button, find microsoft Word and launch the program. I know what you're thinking and yes, its an easy 4.0 (that's an "A" in blue and white standards).

Three months of breeze this subject was, and getting a 4.0 was an effort that was as easy as waking up in the middle of the night just to take a piss. But no, this is GLENN that we're talking about. Glen-the anti-authority; Glen- the non-conformist; Glen- the jackass.

The very same Glen who made a freshman highschool transfer student's life a living hell by pretending to be attracted to her and made pranks by sending anonymous roses implying that it was from some hunky classmate nicknamed "tuxedo mask" (yes Eug, IT WAS ME!! Hahaha! And I'm sorry for it heheh). The very same Glen who in the same year, stopped a fieldtrip bus just to buy smutty tabloids on the street corner (I would like to stress out that this was out of a wager and not my personal preference) just to piss our class adviser off. The very same Glen who (much to the content and enjoyment of his colleagues) made an ass of of their junior highschool class adviser (but it kinda backfired lol.)

The list goes on. heh. But oi, i'm really good guy at heart (this is for the people who'd prejudge me) I just can't help the mischievous tendencies. But I've changed my ways heh.

Anyway, In one crucial project, my professor, who's a behavioral science department professor and a die-hard green and white alumnus (isn't it weird that a computer professor would come from the behavioral science department?) tasked us to make a songsheet of whatever song we would like to choose, as an exercise of microsoft word typing and layouting proficiency. This was the type of die hard alumni peeps that would give you grade incentives if you watched your school team playing the rival school team.

To make the story short, here's what i passed: [link]

The schmuck failed me on this project and I ended up missing my 4.0 final grade.

My apologies to the people whose relatives work in the Philippine National Police.

I am convinced that our most recent batch of the natiional police force are umm.. shall we say "palpakin" (blunderers). Let me enumerate three incidents that happened in the last 3 months or so:

1. The Ortigas cover-up incident.
Just last year, a carnapping scare took the Ortigas and Pasig area and scared the piss out of everyone, including myself. To prove that the PNP are not an impotent force, it allegedly staged a cover-up wherein they caught and shot the carnappers along Ortigas avenue.

News reports revealed disputing evidences (now I'm not stressing them as proofs, only as direct evidences) over the incident. First, that the alleged carnappers were hostile, armed, and retaliated but there were no exit holes from the carjacker's vehicle. Second, that a certain police officer was allegedly hit by a bullet fired from the carjacker's weapons but later evidence showed that that certain officer actually shot himself from his own ricochet bullet (more on this later). Third, that the carjackers were armed, but forensic evidences showed that A.) the back passenger was actually ducking from the car and trying to escape suggesting he was unarmed and that the weapon was planted, and B.) the side passenger fired and dropped his pistol from his right hand. Family testimonials refuted this proof by revealing that the alleged carnapper was acually left-handed and at that time, his right arm had a fracture and could not possibly use the pistol (later confirmed by the forensic autopsy).

Finally, and possibly the stupidest thing that the law enforcement force could have done was to do the cover-up in front of a TV station. of course, it would be inevitable that the station would cover the incident. analysis of its video revealed that the alleged carjackers were not hostile, did not retaliate at all and the police made sure they were dead when the first fired at them (one police officer did not hesitate to check the scene and immediately popped a few bullets to the half-dead driver after the initial ceasefire. the video also confirmed that the police officer that was mentioned a while ago did indeed shot himself from his own ricochet bullet).

2. Pasig Meth Den Demolition
Second case in point. with no further elaboration, an identified meth den in Pasig was immediately demolished by the police with the mayor's supervision even without court order. The mayor did not give any justification of his orders (he only said that we need to destroy these kinds of places immediately so the pushers won't come back or something in that nature. very logical for a place that's quarantined and guarded). later news revealed that some drug transactions were allegedly connected to the people in city hall.

3. Dinky Soliman Capture
And now, the Coup de gras. Just last week, the former secretary of social welfare and development (while making their usual friday night rounds around the city, walking around wearing black shirts that says "oust Gloria" or something with that nature) was arrested and detained by the police because they allegedly broke the presidential decree on staging unauthorized rallies. The police later changed their charge saying that it's because the former secretary was wearing a black shirt, and with messages that could insight into sedition. this reason was changed yet again to what is now reported just today in inq7.net:

"THE POLICE are now revising their charge against former secretary of social welfare Dinky Soliman to that of buying and falsely advertising a "DKNY" imitation shirt, which she acquired for P10 from 168 Mall.

As it turns out, the real DKNY does not come in extra-short, extra-wide sizes."

...I rest my case.

[got this from our group blog at [link]
short and sweet. ]

-----

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
by Portia Nelson

Chapter One

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost ... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to get out.

Chapter Two

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place.
But it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is still there.
I still fall in ... it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter Four

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter Five

I walk down another street.

夢醒了

我想起妳描述夢想天堂的樣子
手指著遠方畫出一棟一棟房子
妳傻笑的表情又那麼誠實
所有的信任是從那一刻開始
妳給我一個到那片天空的地址
只因為太高摔得我血流不止
帶著傷口回到當初背叛的城市
唯一收容我的卻是自己的影子
想跟著妳一輩子　至少這樣的世界沒有現實
想賴著妳一輩子　做妳感情裡最後一個天使
如果夢醒時還在一起　請容許我們相依為命
絢爛也許一時　平淡走完一世
是我選擇妳這樣的女子
就怕夢醒時已分兩地　誰也挽不回這場分離
愛恨可以不分　責任可以不問
天亮了　我還是不是妳的男人?

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout as you did in Rome. Do your worst, for I will do mine! Then the fates will know you as we know you: as Albert Mondego, the man!"

-Edmond Dantes
The Count of Monte Cristo

(originally from my group blog at [link])

March 08, 2006 saw itself as the day where the blue and yellows clashed with the orange and blacks. it was the green and white's student council miting de avance.

[link] As a move by the minority party (the ones in the blue and yellow) to attack and devalue the character of the opposing orange and black presidential candidate (from the majority party), a line of homosexuals affiliated to the blue and yellows stood beside the audience as presidentiable was making his platform speech. One of them even did a floor gymnast routine after the speech was done.

This blogger leaves it to you to discern whether this action was a witty attempt or a futile one to discredit the inevitable victory of their oppenents. For years, the blue and yellows has failed to gain the majority candidacy on the general elections because of their weak specific plans of action, and their primary stigma of being an insubstantial rightist party who focuses more on activities and social events rather than than building itself as a responsible, credible political party that the orange county exudes.

[link] Interestingly, their existence is an anti-thesis of each other, as both of them complementarily represent the university student psyche. The first half is perceived as the free-spirited lasallian, while the latter, is the serious-minded one. However, when it comes to social responsibility/irresponsibility, class consciousness/unconsciousness and sympathy/apathy, lets just say that both of them have their own shares.

Azure/Or, Gules/Sable, however you would like to proudly banner your heraldry, you're all still Argent and Vert. The point isn't really about who's who and who does what, it's about exercising mutual respect. Be as it may that these exhibitions are an indication of a healty and colorul political existence, but there are also plain lines that one simply do not cross, and personal character is the first among these lines. It's a blatant fallacy and you know it. The noble virtue of mutual respect is exercised the whole year round, and not only on public situations.

This blogger assures you that a gesture done on a particular magnitude of an event is possitively correlated to the magnitude of its repercussions as the scandalous nature of this blogger knows better. lol.

Finally, to the remaining green and white students here in this group blog (or whoever else that would be vaguely interested in wasting their time reading this), this blogger strongly urges you to exercise your right to vote and more importantly, to vote wisely.

Hate messages against this blogger's stand are welcomed. But before you do, think of the reason why team B consistenly sweeps the freshmen elections while team A consistently sweeps the general elections. This blogger rests his case.

(reposted from our group blog at [link])

i was checking my mail the other day when i saw this online ad from englicom, the filipino-chinese organization in de la salle (like celadon in admu. its president stresses that its more proper to describe it as the filipino AND chinese organization and i say its adding crap icing to the dung cake). check it out:

[link]

its a photo contest project of the said org. ive been scrutinizing the branding, nature of activities, of this particular organization because even though im not a member (i dont want to join), i feel that i (actually we) are all part of it in the sense that we represent the filipino chinese community. lets take a minute of your time to digest this particular project of theirs.

its actually a project that aims to raise social awareness through a photography contest. well the idea sounded good but the way that they packaged it is simply just wrong.

peppering the advertisement with emotively charged words to describe a marginalized social sector is simply inappropriate, if not arrogant. take a particular look at the second sentence. apalling isnt it? whats even worse (or funnier) is that the mechanics of the contest are actually leading. heheh.

now, wouldnt it be nicer and would make more sense if they instead just made a sustainable long-term socio-civic activity than make this one? a quick fix for social responsibility of the filipino chinese community?

tsk tsk. it's just wrong.