rainbow comet

goodbye

2005-04-08T02:10:00.000+08:00

goodbye dorm,
goodbye internet.
goodbye grade,
goodbye graduation.
goodbye review,
goodbye board exam.
goodbye tech exam,
goodbye interview.
goodbye job offer,
goodbye work.
goodbye all.

procrastinating and bored to death

2005-04-03T13:25:00.000+08:00

guess where i am. same as last night, actually. but so far, i have accomplished NOTHING!!! except the two blog entries, and a bit of accounting for my project/thesis reimbursement. oh and yeah, bonding with booh bear. i cannot believe pinagpalit ko pinsan ko na babalik na sa canada at hindi ko man lang nakita since umalis, for the weekend that i'm spending right now. hmmm... mali yata ang sentence construction. anyway, i was just checking out some stuff on blogthings.com (you can blame the volcano for this) and now i have decided to watch a movie instead of work on my last module. hah! and i thought my previous entry would have been my last for this sem. i guess i was wrong, as always. and here's the proof, hahahaha!

Your Brain is 66.67% Female,
33.33% Male

Your brain leans female
You think with your heart, not your head
Sweet and considerate, you are a giver
But you're tough enough not to let anyone
take advantage of you!

What Gender Is Your Brain?

Your Love Style is Pragma

You believe love is logical - or at least it should be
You've thought a lot about what you want from someone
And to say you have a checklist would be
an understatement
You may even have a plan for how you will fall in love
All you've got to do is meet the perfect person!

What's Your Love Style?

You Are 20% Extrovert, 80% Introvert

You are quite reserved
You aren't afraid of social situations...
But you very much prefer to go it alone
And why not? You're your own best friend!

Are You An Extrovert or An Introvert?

You Are 45% Normal
(Somewhat Normal)

While some of your behavior is quite normal...
Other things you do are downright strange
You've got a little of your freak going on
But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself

How Normal Are You?

You Are Best Described By...

San Giorgio Maggiore, Twilight
By Claude Monet

What Famous Work of Art Are You?

acknowledgments

2005-04-03T12:10:00.000+08:00

To my God, my Savior, Jesus Christ, without You I am nothing.

To my family, Daddy, Mommy, Magoo, Cooki, Anjik, thank you for your undying love and unwavering support, and for always believing in me, even if the miles have separated us for years on end.

To my adviser, Dr. Ramos, thank you for being patient with me and for guiding me in the right path towards the completion of my project.

To my reader, Sir Magpantay, thank you for patiently going through my paper and for the constructive criticism you have pointed out.

To my faculty consultants, Sir Burgos, Sir Magpantay, Sir Pedrasa, Sir Escoto, Ma'am Libby, thank you for allowing me to ambush you with my questions.

To my student consultants, Alex, Jeff, Prem, thank you for allotting a portion of your time to answering my emails, text and instant messages, and thank you for dropping by the lab.

To my labmates, Elmer, Tin, Chrissa, Meinard, Sheryl, Lomag, Frank, thank you for the encouragement, those unforgettable ranting and laughing moments, and for all the tips you shared with me as I worked on my project.

To my dormmates, Aleta, Millette, Rhea, Lyndree, Ivy, Che, Frances, Chari, Jennifer, Allen, June, thank you for those sleepless nights, reserved for movie marathons and pillow talks about life, in general, and for making sure I get my share of dorm food.

To my favorite band, Little Yellow Mustard Seed, Eigen, Jojee, Mighty, Pia, Ian, Aileen, thank you for the music and for sharing with me the passion of serving God.

To UP Dormitories Christian Fellowship, thank you for the prayers, even if I seem to have disappeared from the dorm. To UP Saligan, thank you for bringing Iligan closer to Diliman.

To Andrew, Mandie, Suzanne, Corilyn, Pebbles, Mark, Ate Yahnee, Kuya Godwin, thank you for keeping me awake during my work-a-thon nights, through the wonderful world of instant messaging, and for bringing back the sanity I let go of when I feel down.

To my cousins, Manong Lee, Manong Q, Manong Nico, Manong Cipi, Manong Myko, Ate Maybelle, Maita, Leon, Niki, Joel, Kichi, Lisa, and to my Titas and Titos, thank you for always reminding me that there's more to life than school and work.

To my friends, Aldine, Valynn, Sealdi, Norhana, Janina, Hie, Hazel, Rose, Ilian, your friendship has meant a lot to me, thank you for crossing that virtual overpass to Philcoa from Sanggumay, KNL, Libis, Makati, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro and Iligan.

To my blockmates, Genesis, Erol, Jayson, JP, Teng, Jeff, and my pseudo-blockmates, Deejay, Ryan, Louie, Lowie, thank you for sharing with me the hardships and triumphs of life in the EEE department of the country's premier university.

To Athan, for being my best friend, for supporting me in my aspirations in life, for the time we've spent enjoying life together, thank you for getting me out of my shell, and thank you for the time we've spent apart, to work on our respective projects.

To all those who have helped me in one way or another, thank you for sharing your resources with me and for simply being there for me.

the irony of a signed document

2005-04-02T21:35:00.000+08:00

submitting the hard bound copy of one's thesis must be one of the highlights of a college student's life. for most, it is the culmination of a year or so of hard work and dedication, not to mention discipline (or the lack of it, due to procrastination), and the many sleepless nights spent in front of the pc, writing the final documentation, or wasting away in chat rooms, blog pages and movie marathons.

yesterday, i submitted 3 maroon colored, hard bound, 40 pages of near non-sense, along with a cd copy of my project's ingredients and by-products, so to speak. unfortunately, because of my short-term memory loss, i failed to include the hardware part of my project. i shouldn't feel too bad about it because it is safely tucked in the recesses of the server in our lab, however, i feel so irresponsible and incompetent.

now let me tell you that my hard bound project documentation has already been signed for recommendation by my adviser as well as my reader. and it has been approved by our department head, who, fortunately for me, is my very own adviser. in a sense, i'm way ahead of my batch. however, since my project still has some modules that i need to work on, i might not be able to attend our graduation rites this april.

the deadline of submission of grades for graduating students is on april 5 and i don't know what grade will appear on my classcard if i don't finish my project by then. my adviser told me to attend to my other subjects first because i already have a grade for my thesis. i just have to complete my last module. unfortunately, i'm too much of a coward to try to play with my hardware again. for one, it's 90% complete. secondly, i'm afraid i might destroy what i have finished.

i don't want to do anything that will make me go through what happened the weekend before my final presentation. i had to do a major overhaul on my project just because i decided to use a different protocol for master-slave communication. my initial testing has been successful until i let my setup rest. when i tried test my setup again, it wouldn't work anymore. and then my power supply bummed out. my adviser and i had to spend 2 whole days together figuring out a way to improve it.

anyway, another problem is that i will be really busy this week. on monday, i have an exam in makati, on tuesday, an interview in ortigas, on wednesday i have to pack because i'm leaving the dorm on thursday, and on friday, i have another exam in makati. so i have until sunday to work on my project if i don't want to disappoint my parents and all my expecting relatives.

on the lighter side, i found a very good excuse to enjoy my finals days (and nights) at the lab, and on a weekend at that. but the thing is, since i will be missing my unlimited internet connection from the dorm, i decided to do some blogging first. and this morning, i went to the pool for my last swim as a college student. of course, i plan to visit next school year.

sigh, i lost my focus. my title might not be that appropriate anymore, but i would like to stick with it. as this might as well be my last entry until i get a job with a not so strict internet connection, i would like to point out that the first entry of this blog was written on a day just like today. it was a saturday and i went swimming in the morning. i spent most of the day with booh bear and then i concluded my day in front of the pc, blogging and surfing, mostly, hehe.

i do hope the days to come will be my last days as a college student. please pray that i will be able to finish my project by tomorrow evening, or before sunrise on monday, at the latest. thank you so much. take care you all. i will miss having this as a way to release my tension and stress. and i will miss you all.

unlimited

2005-03-27T14:25:00.000+08:00

what has the world come to? after sun's 24/7 came smart's 258 and now globe has its own unlimited call&text feature. i didn't believe it at first, when i read about it in one of my emails, but just now, an old friend from the department called. and we talked for what seemed like an hour. of course, the limit is at 30 minutes, but then our conversation only got cut because my battery ran out. hahaha!

last christmas, i've heard rumors from my relatives that this would be come around february this year but the news never got out so i thought it was just hearsay and that those emails were just a hoax. anyway, if those telecomminucations companies think they could waste bandwidth over voice calls and text messaging, i hope they'd think about bulk data, too. i will be leaving the dorm soon and i have no idea how i'll survive without my pc being connected to the internet. so there!

playhouse UP

2005-03-25T17:45:00.000+08:00

this is the first time i'm spending holy week without my family. no, actually, it's my second. but last time, i was with my tita and her family and they brought me to vigan and laoag. so, this is the first time i'm spending it without any blood relations. hmmm... i'm meeting my sister tomorrow, but what the heck! my point is, i didn't attend any church activity this lent, save for ash wednesday and i go to mass during sundays (wait, i think i missed mass 2 sundays ago).

so to compensate for our lack of blood-related company (thesaurus please!), the caterpillar, the volcano and i have been making up for lost time. our schedules have been super hectic for the past few weeks so we haven't been seeing each other lately. and our blogs haven't been updated as much either. so we spent all of yesterday afternoon walking around campus... taking pictures! we ended the day at jollibee, talking about the biggest scandal of the year: why barbie broke up with ken... hahahahaha!

earlier today, i had a mini-open house for them since they missed my dorm's open house. (i think i was at the lab, so they had no one to visit.) anyway, since i had no roommates, i took 3 meals for lunch and had them over. of course, it was unplanned and all. we were supposed to eat at their dorm. i don't know why they changed their minds. anyway, it was fun talking about our childhood, even if we didn't get to know each other until high school. i guess we all experienced the same growing up laughs and pains from our hometown.

anyway, i realized that since then, i have been eating and eating and eating, and blogging and blogging and blogging, and playing bejeweled (by shockwave) at that! i think that's my new addiction right now. it's just weird because i know i have to do, and yet my mind is somewhere else, somewhere away from UP. or somwhere within UP but away from school. i think i'm getting sick and tired of school. but i know i feel apprehensive about going out into the real world. right now, as i am still in between, i think i'd just have to enjoy playing house in UP with my next dorm neighbors.

looking back, looking ahead

2005-03-24T10:50:00.000+08:00

since i had nothing better to do this morning (actually, i'm supposed to be polishing the final draft of my thesis), i found myself browsing through my gintong silahis '99 and kalai 2000 yearbooks, documents of my life when i was a senior in high school and when i was a freshman in college. this brought both fond and horrid memories from six years ago and i heard myself saying, "i wish i did this and i wish i didn't do that..."

in a month or so i will be leaving college. (provided that i survive the next 10 days!) what will go through my mind when i look at my yearbook 5, 10, 20 years from now? where will i be then? i really do not know. what's worse is that i don't know what i want. or maybe i don't want to think about it just yet.

i will be saying goodbye to the dorm and goodbye to the lab. will i be saying goodbye to my friends, too? where will i go? what will i do? to whom will i turn to? i know i have to wait to get the answers to these questions. but i'm growing tired and impatient because i don't know what i'm waiting for anymore. i just hope i won't end up saying, "i wish i did this and i wish i didn't do that..."

the thin line

2005-03-23T17:30:00.000+08:00

!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!

they say there's a very thin line between love and hate.

!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!

how do you know you've crossed the line?

!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!

when do you say one and mean the other?

!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!

and what do you do when this happens?

!@#$%^&*&^%$#@!

going, going, gone c R a z Y !!!

2005-03-22T20:20:00.000+08:00

i never thought i would go through with it. i had an exam this morning, and instead of studying, i went out last sunday with my roommates and yesterday with my dad. i even attended my cousin's wedding. (that was yesterday, too.) i went home at 4am and studied til 6. the exam was at 12.30 but i woke up at 9. then i went to school to cram, but to no avail. 30 minutes after the exam started, i was done. and i had nothing short of an answer on my paper. i really felt bad so i left school as soon as i finished the exam and got a hold of my project documentation from my reader. and i have been in front of the pc since. i'm supposed to be working on my lab report for my biomedical engineering class, but i can't seem to make my brain function. instead, i decided to defragment my hard drive and i went for a walk. i even ended up in church, and i listened to the homily of the 6pm mass. then i went to buy something to munch while tolling the night away - my lab report is due tomorrow, and i'm still stuck with nothing in my head. of course, i think i would rather go to bed. this is just so depressing. i thought i left the campus yesterday to get away from it all - my friends at school, my roommates, my academic life... but now that i'm back, it's like i never left at all. worse, i'm so deep in sh*t i don't know how to get out. i don't even know how i got in. please, oh please give me peace.

pasaway !!!

2005-03-19T03:50:00.000+08:00

i don't know why am still awake. obviously, i can't sleep. i have been online talking nonsense and not doing my paperwork. oh i don't know. things just didn't go too well yesterday at school. i nearly threw temper tantrums in front of my roommates, classmates, labmates and even my adviser. just kidding. but honestly, i felt like a spoiled brat. and the weather had got to me too. i hope it won't spoil my plans of going swimming later. but then, i don't think i'd be able to wake up early enough to visit the pool. especially since i'm still awake right now, and i plan to swim my usual range, even if it has been a while since i last laid eyes on our swimming pool. anyway, my sister graduated from high school yesterday, and i don't know why the gap at home cannot seem to be bridged anymore. i feel hopeless. and tired. and helplessly lazy. how do i expect to finish my remaining tasks for this chapter of my life when i just feel so down. i don't even understand, why on earth am i not ok? but then, i have realized that i have so many friends who care about me and who i can depend on. it made me think, am i like that as a friend, too? i know everyone has his/her limitations but up to what extent is a friend willing to sacrifice for another? i really don't know. what what on earth do i do with those who suddenly turn their backs on you? i know there are times that i can do that, too. but i don't think i'm that bad. or am i? i need to know if i have failed to be there especially for those who have been there for me, one time or another. i better start writing my reports and documentations, not to mention the acknowledgement page for my thesis. boy, do i have a lot to thank. i just hope i won't forget anyone. hey, i'm getting sleepy. what a relief. if you haven't noticed, i have been posting like crazy. that's the effect of being out of reach for the longest time. hehehehe!

learn to be lonely

2005-03-19T02:40:00.000+08:00

Child of the wilderness
Born into emptiness
Learn to be lonely
Learn to find your way in darkness

Who will be there for you
Comfort and care for you
Learn to be lonely
Learn to be your one companion

Never dreamed out in the world
There are arms to hold you
You've always known
Your heart was on its own

So laugh in your loneliness
Child of the wilderness
Learn to be lonely
Learn how to love life that is lived alone

Learn to be lonely
Life can be lived
Life can be loved
Alone

--
The Phantom of the Opera

papansin at/o kulang sa pansin

2005-03-19T01:00:00.000+08:00

bakit ganun nawawala yung mga hinahanap ko.
nandito naman yung mga di ko masyadong kelangan.
pero kung tutuusin, sa bandang huli,
yung mga akala kong hindi ko kelangan,
ay sila pala yung kelangan ko talaga.

birth order personalities

2005-03-18T21:45:00.000+08:00

The Birth Order Quiz*
By Dr. Kevin Leman

First child. Perfectionist, reliable, conscientious, list maker, well organized, hard driving, natural leader, critical, serious, scholarly, logical, doesn't like surprises, loves computers

Middle child. Mediator, compromising, diplomatic, avoids conflict, independent, loyal to peers, many friends, a maverick, secretive, unspoiled

Youngest child. Manipulative, charming, blames others, attention seeker, tenacious, people person, natural salesperson, precocious, engaging, affectionate, loves surprises

Only child. Little adult by age seven; very thorough; deliberate; high achiever; self-motivated; fearful; cautious; voracious reader; black and white thinker; uses "very," "extremely," "exactly," a lot; can't bear to fail; has very high expectations for self; more comfortable with people who are older or younger

My comment. True enough :p

--
© Copyright 2003 by realFamilies.com

the greatest words ever written

2005-03-18T18:45:00.000+08:00

1. "All You Need Is Love."
2. "Unto thine own self be true."
3. "All journeys begin with a first step."

gloomy-ness

2005-03-17T19:55:00.000+08:00

wala akong ginawa today. and the good news still doesn't register in my mind: "pasado ka na. may grade ka na. ayusin mo na lang yung last module mo, pati yung power supply. pero gagraduate ka na, kung ito lang pinoproblema mo. congratulations!"

pano ba naman. it's just so gloomy outside. at di ko na alam kung anong gagawin ko. feeling ko ang tagal pa ng mga deadline at exams ko. next week na pala! kaso super clueless pa ako.

speaking of cluless, one of my panels, yung adviser ng friend* ko, asked my labmate DURING my presentation kung kami ba daw. TAMA BA YUN?!?! hello, alam yata ng buong EEE na kami ni ***. at first i found it funny. tawanan pa kami kanina sa lab. pero ewan ko kung bakit naiinis ako ngayon.

siguro kasi may namimiss lang akong ibang tao na kung anu-ano pa ang ginagawa. ewan ko ba dun. papansin naman ako masyado kung kulitin ko nang kulitin yun. hay mga tao talaga oh. nakakainis!

what's in a name?

2005-03-17T17:40:00.000+08:00

" D o v e "

Yours is a quite, systematic, and
technical nature and a clever,
inventive mind, attentive to detail.
You are attracted to working
outdoors in nature, where you would
experience the peace and serenity you
so much desire. You are inclined to be
quite, reserved, patient, and
conservative, preferring to test and
prove everything to your own
satisfaction before committing
yourself. You like to finish what you
start without interruptions, and also
to have everything in its place and
properly organized.

i'm alive !!!

2005-03-16T16:30:00.000+08:00

after locking myself up in the lab for the last three days/weeks, i'm surprised i'm still up and about. its weird because i don't feel all that sleepy. but my bio-clock is a mess! i've been sleeping 3 hours midnight-inclusive and another 3 hours sunrise-inclusive for the last three days/weeks. i've been in front of the pc all day/week/month/sem, or make that two PCs, plus my beloved Mitsubishi RVM1 robot arm. the two PCs are about 10 feet apart and i have been walking to and fro between both PCs everyday since i finished working on my hardware enclosure. that was around mid-february. anyway, during the last three days, i promised myself i won't visit my friends' blogs so as not to distract me from my work. i am proud to say that i successfully kept this promise BUT i did visit my cousin's blog last night (i think). so here are the highlights of my anti-overnight, 198 campaign:

sunday night: bulag, pipi at bingi. Jesus healed them all. He even brought Lazarus back from the dead. ako ba'y isang bulag, pipi o bingi? o patay na ba ako? and my sister sent me a very sentimental text message. but i'll keep that to myself (and to booh bear).

monday & tuesday: working with daddy doc. panic mode. but who's panicking? not ME! nakakatuwa kasi tinulungan ako ng adviser ko. twice niya pa ko sinabihan, "magpahinga ka naman." sagot ko naman, "hindi sir ok lang po ako. kung magpahinga kasi ako di ko matatapos to." but then he reassured me, "ok lang yan. wag mo masyado problemahin. matatapos mo yan." kainis lang kasi later sabi nya ang tagal ko daw maayos yung boards ko. ang gulo niya!

tapos minsan he joked, "ano uwian na ba?" as in, give up na ba ako? kasi ayaw gumana eh. sabi ko, "ok lang, kung hindi talaga eh di wag pilitin." tho kainis kasi gumana na yun before pa! then he said, "sige mag-iisip ako ng rason." so slow naman ako. rason pala na sasabihin niya sa panel, kung bakit di ko natapos yung project ko. so touched naman ako, idedefend niya pala ako. di ko inexpect talaga.

tingin ko nahahalata niya na pagod na ako. kasi kahit yung simpleng katangahan ko, nagbibigay na siya ng tips kung pano ko i-debug. sabi pa niya nung minsan, "break ka muna. illogical ka na mag-isip eh." hahahahaha! nakakatuwa talaga!

tuesday night: the test of friendship. i mentioned a friend from the previous post. again, sinamahan niya ako sa lab until the wee hours of the morning habang nag-iisip kung pano ko aayusin yung mga kapalpakan ng project ko. panic mode na nga! 8.20 am yung presentation ko. nakakainis talaga kasi ok na lahat nung weekend, after ng 4th rewire ko. kasibagong protocol na ang gagamitin ko for my master-slave interface. anyway, tinulungan niya din ako sa slides ko at nagmock present ako sa kanya at sa sarili ko. tawag ko na nga sa kanya, my personal student consultant and secondary adviser. sa kanya ko kasi tinatanong lahat ng hindi ko alam sa project ko (hardware especially) lalo na nung proposal pa lang ako. malay ko ba sa encoder signals at limit switch na yan. kaya yun. mega salamat, former-blockmate, now-isolate!!!

wednesday: the morrow that came. natulog ako around 4am. set the alarm to 7am. but no! i ignored it until 7.30 and lay there waiting for my clock to register 8am, actual time: 7.45am! then biglang bangon without fixing my beddings (first time sa lab!) then ligo. buti pinauna ako nung another blockmate ko kasi 8.40 pa sked niya. pagbaba ko, kararating lang ng panel ko. pero dumaan muna sila sa faculty room. nandun din labmates ko, who supposedly coudln't make it. mega salamat sa paglinis ng lab! sobrang sori sa kalat sa inner room. haha. natulog pa ko after ng presentation. dapat til 7am lang may beddings sa lab. buti hinayaan nila ako. and they closed the door para di ko marinig ingay nila. bait talaga. mega suporta ito! sana lang sabihan na ako ng adviser ko kung ano na para makagawa na ulit. kasi i got two exams next week kaya sana at least 2 weeks extension ko. di enough ang 1 week for me eh. kaya yun. eto bumabawi lang ako sa blog. and now, it's time to rest.

the friendlies

2005-03-12T09:00:00.000+08:00

kakaiba talaga pag naging friendly bigla ang isang tao. lalo na kung yung isang tao ay ako. i don't know what came over me but the other day at the lab, may dumalaw na former student affiliate ng lab. i really don't remember how it happened basta na lang nagkwentuhan na kami ng todo todo. may graduate class siya nun and he was waiting for their teacher (who also happens to be my thesis adviser and our department chairperson). anyway, it was fun talking with him and i'd like to note that he didn't ask, "iligan? where's that?" o diba. nakakatuwa naman. tsaka we had a lot of common friends pala. o diba. "it's a small world afer all..."

last night naman, nagkwentuhan kami nung isa kong friend. sinamahan niya kasi ako sa lab. the weird thing is, 9.30 na ako umuwi for dinner. supposedly, ngayon lang ako babalik. kaso medyo nagsisi ko about cancelling my overnight plans and it just so happened na nagtext siya, nasa philcoa pala siya, he needed someone to talk to and he wanted to go back to the lab din. so yun sinundo niya ako sa dorm ng around 10.30, naglakad kami papuntang EEE and so i'm here. yun nga lang 4.30 na kami natulog. pero infernes may nagawa naman ako. yung mga dapat kong ginawa sa dorm, na di ko magawa-gawa kasi nagbasa lang ko ng mga blog ng other friendlies ko. hahaha! so yun, yun lang po. the bottomline is: "make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold..."

palpakers galore

2005-03-09T19:15:00.000+08:00

i'm beginning to hate wednesdays*
everything just has to go wrong
then i'd be forced to spend the night
just when everybody's gearing up to leave

i'd spend my night alone, in tears
facing two bulok-of-the-art PCs
with my eyes stinging, my nose running
i'd sleep my night away

so therefore i conclude
wala akong magagawang matino
nag overnight pa ako
palpak naman din project ko--
*wednesday 8am pa naman final presentation ko!

exam, exam, exam!

2005-02-26T23:05:00.000+08:00

before the exam. i think i have insomnia. i have been sleeping late for the past week or so. last night at EEE, while cramming for my 9 am exam, i'd find myself wide awake 10 minutes after every attempt to go to sleep. but at last i was asleep by 4.30 am, although not without reading my bedtime story: our course notes! to think those were the same notes that kept me awake all night. i went back to the dorm at around 7 am for my bath and my breakfast... and my answer sheet! hehehe...

during the exam. this would be the second time i'd have stayed overnight at EEE just for an exam. i guess i had no choice. i haven't studied at all before last night and if i stayed in my room at the dorm, i would have fallen asleep before midnight, when at that time i was less than halfway through my notes. besides it was open house night and i bet the noise would have driven me nuts. anyway, this time i didn't fall asleep while taking the exam. that happened only once in my lifetime, well make that three times... in one exam! i don't think i passed that exam but at least i didn't fail the course. what a relief!

after the exam. unfortunately, i don't think the exam went well. aside from the lack of sleep, there were too many distractions: the results of the previous exam were actually distributed while we were taking the exam! and there was so little time. and did i mention, i was mad at the world again? i hate exam days like these. and i hate it when i am affected by people around me. sometimes they can be so insensitive... grrr, and i hate that, too. anyway, i went to the mall with dormmate for six years and when we went our separate ways (he was going home for the weekend), i went around, alone. i don't think i've ever done that before and actually had an ok time. except that on my way home, i felt drunk because i was too sleepy to keep my eyes open until i got back to the dorm, where i finally gave in and slept from 4.30 to 6.30 pm. guess why i'm wide awake again. sigh.

reflections and tear stains

2005-02-20T12:55:00.000+08:00

"love, like rain, can nourish from above, drenching couples with a soaking joy. but sometimes under the angry heat of life, love dries on the surface and must nourish from below, tending to its roots, keeping itself alive."
my eyes sting. my pillow was wet with teardrops after i finished reading the book*. and i found myself thinking, "why on earth did i cry?" i want to think that if i read the book again, it won't drive me to tears anymore. i cried because i am not ok right now. yes, i had fun last night at the fair. but before that, something didn't quite turn out as i hoped.

"death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else, and in the small distance between taken and being missed, lives are changed."
i know that i constantly complain about every little thing that goes wrong in my life, when every morning, somebody doesn't wake up, or is killed in a car accident, or gets poisoned by something he ate. life is a gift. it is also a challenge. i should accept that and live with what i have. i am not perfect, and neither are the people around me. but i am thankful i'm alive.

"strangers are family you have yet to come to know."
ok, so how about those super creepy stalkers who totally freak us out? hahahaha! i have nothing more to say.

"all sons will adore their fathers through even the worst bahavior. it is how they learn devotion. before he can devote himsel to God or to a woman, a boy will devote himself to his father even foolishly, even beyond explanation."
just one question: IS THIS TRUE ?????

anyway, here are "the five lessons in life" i got from the book*:

1. there are no random acts, (all lives) are connected.
2. life without sacrifice is meaningless.
3. learn to forgive, and to ask for forgiveness.
4. life has to end, but love doesn't.
5. wherever you are, your life has a purpose.

--
*the five people you meet in heaven, mitch albom

arrggghhhh!!!!@#$%^&*

2005-02-19T12:55:00.000+08:00

grabe na talaga ito. makikigamit na nga lang ng pc, hindi pa ino-off ang monitor tsaka avr. makikibasa na nga lang ng libro, hindi pa iniingatan. iniwan ba naman face-down, sa kama ko pa! di na lang gumamit ng bookmark. wala na bang pag-asa ang mga batang ito. nakatago kaya ang librong yun. pee*ai talaga. kung lagyan ko kaya ng "do not touch" lahat ng gamit ko. bwisit talaga. nako lang. i am in rage. nagloloko pa yung thesis ko. ano ba ito. i need to swim. dapat pala dun na lang ko pumunta kanina. waaahh!!!! ang sarap mang-away ng tao. i can't wait to leave this room nang mawawalan na sila ng internet (ako din, huhu). hay nako lang. dalhin ko na lang kaya sa lab pc ko. tapos dun na lang ako forever. grrr...

ok na sana

2005-02-18T22:55:00.000+08:00

ang kapal ng mukha! kakaayos ko lang ng pc ko eh nagdownload na sila kaagad, at nag-install pa! buti chikka lang. nako makakapatay ako ng langgam* kung may iba pa silang nilagay. walang hiya naman kasi, pinakialaman pa nila yung ibang programs ko. gawin ba namang laruan ang pc ko? putik! i did not waste a whole day yesterday fixing this up for them to mess it up again. my labmate actually asked me this morning, "bat wala ka kahapon?" i had to reply, "nasira pc ko." totoo naman eh. di lang nila alam, two weeks ago pa yun. kahapon ko lang inayos kasi i had to check my windoze files. but no. ngayon sira na rin ang linux ko. kung kelan balak ko sana dun na lang sila gumamit forever. that way less ang damage di ba. grrr ang sarap magmura. bad trip pa ko kanina kasi nagpunta pala ng fair ang mga tao sa eee. edi wala akong kasama pauwi. ang saya saya ko pa naman nung umalis ako ng lab. i was thinking, "i'm actually not afraid (to go home alone at 9.30 pm) anymore... still, as a last resort, kelangan ko ng kotse. hehehe..." hah! right you are! no, i'm not afraid. i am mad. i'm mad at my roommates. i'm mad at booh bear. and i'm mad at myself for being so naive and leaving my pc vulnerable to the what-nots of the people i detest when it comes to internet usage. to think i actually felt guilty for not fixing windoze up asap. i should have let them think it's over with me and windoze. darnit. why did i allow my other subjects force me to think i needed to fix this. argh! and i was planning to be at the lab all day tomorrow because i have to work on my hardware again! hopefully i'll be working on my last software module, plus integration. so my hardware better work asap because i'll also have to integrate it with my software modules. hay nagmukha pa ata akong tanga kasi automated yata yung reply ng adviser ko basta may "overnight request" sa subject heading. wish ko lang naka filter din yun nang di niya na mabasa at all. hmp. gigising na nga na lang ako ulit ng maaga bukas. kakatuwa kasi 8 am kanina nasa lab na ako. tapos di pa dumating agad labmate ko kaya wala akong kaagaw sa lab. buong araw nga yata ako nagwork. sana lang bukas matapos ko na lahat. kasi malamang iuuwi ko nanaman sa dorm ang aking project. pang-asar pa adviser ko kanina. kasi nanghingi ako ng bagong microcontroller kasi kulang yung memory nung dati niya binigay. ayun, sinabi ba naman, "ilan na chips ko sayo? anim? o, may utang ka nang 6 thousand sa akin ha?" sabay tawa. sige lang. at least ok na kami at di na ako (masyadong) takot sa kanya. hay. makatulog na nga. ang haba na pala nito. pero pa ata reklamo. sorry kung sasakit ulo niyo dito. ttfn!

access denied

2005-02-17T21:30:00.000+08:00

i just came from the lab. darnit i'm overly depressed. my adviser saw me arrive at 7.30 and even waved and smiled at me. come 8.30, i realized i really had to work tomorrow night. so i emailed him because his car was not in the parking lot anymore. i was expecting that he would read my email tomorrow morning so i was surprised (shocked even) because it took him less than 5 minutes to reply,

"Received request for overnight stay in YICAL.
Only graduate students are allowed overnight stay.
Undergraduate students are not allowed.
See me personally if you like to argue your case."

i actually thought this was an automated reply, but i remembered that i did not use the format for his subject heading. oh bother. now, i don't think i'd want to see him tomorrow. guess i'll have to try to wake up early and beat my labmate at the computer. but darnit he arrives at 8 am! that's the time i wake up! what time does he leave san juan anyway, 6 am?!

i'm desperate. should i tell my adviser that my labmate (a graduate student, at that) is the reason i want to work at night? because, although he has overnight privileges, he doesn't use it at all. we have devised a work schedule where we each get half a day to work (i get to work in the morning because i have classes in the afternoon). but we agreed that if he arrived before i did, he could use the pc until i shoo him away. but then i don't have the heart to do so. especially since i know how it feels to have your work momentum cut short.

so what do i do now? should to talk to my labmate before i talk to my adviser or should be go behind my labmate's back and use him as an excuse to get away from the dorm. hahaha just kidding. for now, i guess i'll have to work double time on my thesis and for my other subjects' projects, whether i be in the dorm or at the lab. so help me God...

dual boot no more

2005-02-17T18:10:00.000+08:00

my pc is running on windoze again. it took me all day to format my pc and try to recover my files from my linux box. unfortunately, everything i've worked on for the last two weeks (while windoze went on vacation) are gone. and i can't log on to linux because i reinstalled windoze so now i have to reformat my linux partition too. this is just so depressing. especially after i realized that i have a lot to redo for my thesis. sigh. i have to go to the lab. even if its 6 pm already. i just hope my adviser will allow me to stay overnight tomorrow. i guess i'm getting desperate and tired. and sleeping doesn't help either. i usually wake up tired these days. and i'm not getting enough food, too. oh well. good bye health. hello sleepless nights...

ang taray ng lola mo!

2005-02-16T22:50:00.000+08:00

at 9.30 this morning, i was in my biomed class and my teacher was giving her lecture when a student from another class entered our classroom and, seeing that we were inside, immediately announced to her classmates that there was a class. so they stayed outside and waited. however, they were so noisy reviewing for their exam. agitated, i walked out of our class and confronted them,

"excuse me, may gagawin ba kayo dito?"
"may exam kami," one of them replied.
"anong oras?" sabi ko.
"10 o' clock," sagot nila.
"ah, kasi hanggang 11 yung class namin..." i explained.
"talaga? ay shucks!" they exclaimed.
"...tsaka masyado kayong maingay," i retorted.

then i went off to the guard's table to vent. when i went back to my class, i almost locked the door. those damn kids were way too noisy to be reviewing. i hope they fail their exam. just kidding.

i don't like today. i was so happy this morning and afternoon because i have successfully tested my software modules but when i tried to test my hardware modules, i think i destroyed my microcontroller. nag overheat ata. mukhang may nagshort somewhere sa circuit ko. bad trip! kahapon lang gumagana na yun eh. yung software naman yung ayaw. hay nako. sakit sa ulo.

and i have to rewire my boards and redo my code kasi maglalagay pa ako ng reset pin plus LED indicators kung on na nga ba ang aking hardware monitor. i have less than one month to go. i think i'll have to take my chances with my adviser and hope he will give me overnight privileges or i am doomed...

ang lab layp ko, bow

2005-02-14T23:30:00.000+08:00

happy heart's day vibralarm. since i have been planning to go to the lab early today, i set my alarm at 7 am. but this didn't wake me up becuase i turned it off before it had the chance to get noisy. instead, my phone mysteriously vibrated (twice even! at 6.45 am and 7.30 am, my time). this has happened before, but what puzzles me is that it happens only when i really really really have to wake up early.

black shirt day. anyway, today is valentine's day and it's my favorite day to wear black. hahaha! i don't know why exactly, but i think i just want to do it in spite of those who are overly romantic and the like. i have to admit though that not seeing booh bear today was a bit disappointing. of course, it's partly my fault. i just didn't want to go to the fourth floor before going home. but he didn't pass by my lab when he arrived either, so i'd say we're even.

it was a bit irritating too that everyone just had to ask if we were going out today. what's the big deal anyway? it's not like i'd die if we didn't go out, or if i didn't see him, right?

cuts and bruises. speaking of dying, too many cuts and bruises can't kill you, can they? i think i've hurt myself too much this week. i've been working on the hardware part of my project and i have dubbed myself the drill mistress since i have been using this giant drill machine while everyone else (everyone: limited to females) used the mini/hand drill. my hands have been calloused from working with my new toys and my fingertips hurt too from soldering and desoldering my boards and connectors.

oh, i just remembered, i have had 3 accidents already at the lab. just minor ones, but accidents nonetheless. i have been working on my power supply and my voltage regulator popped twice, so have my capacitors. hahaha, my heart beat really fast when i was testing that piece of hardware. and the "accidents" smelled really foul: i had a headache afterwards. anyway, back to my bruises. my cabinet at the lab is located way above my head, or thereabouts. to get my stuff, i have to kneel on the pc table below the cabinets. unfortunately, this kneeling gives me bruises on my knees, and i'm getting paranoid. but then, my labmate experiences the same symptoms... of what, i don't want to know...

to trust or not to trust

2005-02-13T09:20:00.000+08:00

my mom has been complaining about my sisters having "unofficial" boyfriends, and dropping the "unofficial" bit at that. she said, "unofficial or not, a boyfriend is a boyfriend." and i agree. but i'm afraid my mom trusts me too much. just because my boyfriend isn't "unofficial" doesn't exempt me from whatever concerns my mom might have for worrying about my sisters' "unofficial" boyfriends. it just made me think: am i worthy of the trust my mom has for me? i honestly don't know. i guess time will tell...

a series of unexpected events

2005-02-05T00:35:00.000+08:00

i've had a rather weird day. many unplanned and rather unexpected things happened:

first of all, my labmate-turned-driver helped me scout for some things i needed for my thesis.

second of all, my adviser-turned-butler unlocked and opened the door to our lab for me. read: our lock is located 1 inch above the floor!

sadly though, after both amusing episodes, i cut my left forefinger whilst cutting my circuit boards. imagine that finger coming in contact with ferric chloride. eewww!

lastly, i attended the fEEEsta 2005 culminating activity! i planned to work some more on my boards but we no choice since our power was cut for a minute or so. but guess what, i enjoyed being there!

but i had to do another disappearing act because my labmate and i had to go back to the lab while dinner was being served. we almost didn't get our share of the food. but we made it just in time. hehehe.

the program ended at around 10 pm and i accomplished nothing before that so i stayed longer at the lab and worked til midnight. so i had to ask my sister's friend and booh bear's labmate to pick me up and accompany me on my walk back to the dorm. and i think my adviser saw us when he revisited the lab before midnight. ooops!

peace offering

2005-02-02T21:45:00.000+08:00

the ece 113 story: part 4

i don't know how it happened. maybe everything was just one-sided. anyway, all of a sudden booh bear and kuya blockmate are my friends again. i even offered them some fish crackers as a peace offering. of course, that's only my side of the story. i still don't know if they even noticed my mood swings. how insensitive! and to think my sister told me this: "i wish i were more like you, kinda "manhid" so i don't have to worry about other people's feelings."

anyway, i've been cutting through copper and plastic all day and my hand and arm muscles hurt bad. i'll be working on my thesis again. i've got to finish this asap. i have a lot to do. hehe actually i have 3 (out of 7) modules left to work on. but at the rate i'm going i don't know if i could keep up with my schedule. good luck to all thesis mode people out there!

disappearing act

2005-02-01T21:50:00.000+08:00

the ece 113 story: part 3

we had our second exam today. it was supposed to start at 12 noon but our teacher arrived at 12.45 pm!!! i was so harrassed because i had to print my homework, and our printer at the lab couldn't print my figures correctly. aside from that, i had to wait for booh bear and kuya blockmate because they were still working on their homework. eventually i got pissed off (for reasons i won't mention), so i didn't wait for them to finish. i wanted to take the exam to get it off my to-do list. after the exam, i went straight to the lab, then decided to go home or anywhere faw away from my friends. i decided to go and buy the components for our project so i had no choice but to contact booh bear and ask him for the part numbers of the components we needed. it was as if we were no more than groupmates. i felt awful but because i was still mad at them, but i didn't care. i told dormmate for six years to get well ASAP and take care of our project because i just couldn't work with booh bear and kuya blockmate. AND i had to work on my thesis. good grief. i've been stalled for two weeks now. i just wish i could still catch up with my adviser's demands, especially since i was planning to be ahead of schedule.

system restore

2005-02-01T09:35:00.000+08:00

mega harassment ever. i wake up to a text message telling me to "please prnt our homework". when i turn on my computer, i see a blue screen telling me that there was a driver error, and the system could not determine whether it was hardware or software. i have encountered this before and i had to reformat my pc to make it run on windoze again. this time i tried to restore my system settings to an earlier day. my first few tries resulted with the same blue screen. until i tried restoring to january 2, 2005. big problem: i lost my anti-virus program, and all my updates within the last month. this made me realize that in a month's time i was able to upgrade my pc to super mode. and now it's all gone. when i tried to move the restore point to a later day, it still wouldn't work. bigger problem: january 2 was no longer an option. now the only thing i could do is to reformat my pc. since i don't have the time to do so, i'm stuck with redhat 7.3, and it's just sooo difficult to manage my files. i still have access to my windoze files but i have to run in safe mode, without my printer or the internet. poor pc. after i finish my project, i promise to fix you up and regain our partnership. hehehe!!!

contemplating study habits

2005-01-31T22:55:00.000+08:00

this is sooooo frustrating. i go to the library and what happens? instead of studying for my exam, i found myself THINKING!!! not about the exam, or the topics it will cover, but thinking "WHY ON EARTH AM I HERE (in the library)?" the minute i arrived, i read a message on my cellphone. it was booh bear telling me that he will be dropping by the dorm to give my some notes for the exam. WHY DID HE HAVE TO TELL ME THIS ONLY NOW??? and for some reason, he didn't want to meet me at the library. so fine, leave my notes at the dorm. i'll look through them tomorrow. after i finish our homework. darnit. i reached the library at around 5.30 and left at 8pm. when i arrived at the dorm, i found my roommate and a former roommate chatting at the lobby so i joined them. well, well, well... when i got back to my room, it was already 10pm! goodbye exam! goodbye homework! goodbye project! sigh. i better go to bed and hope for a good night's sleep and an ok exam tomorrow. therefore, i conclude that cramming is still the best way to study. hahahahaha!!!

second exam blues

2005-01-31T16:50:00.000+08:00

i miss booh bear. don't get me wrong. i see him almost everyday. but we don't talk that much anymore. maybe because he's one floor above me in school and he practically lives there most of the week. so it's basically, "hi, hello, goodbye" for us.

this afternoon, they (he and his labmates) came to the dorm to play basketball against the EEE faculty for the fiEEEsta 2005 celebration. this was the first game they lost and i admit it was quite frustrating, since they lost by only one point.

but compared to that, being "ignored" still hurts more. maybe i resent the fact that they come to the dorm almost everyday and they don't (he doesn't) even bother to tell me to come out.

anyway, we have an exam tomorrow and i suggested we study together like we did in the previous semesters. his only reply was, "how?" WHAT THE -- !?! so fine. i'm feeling rebellious. i don't want to study. i don't even want to take the stupid exam.

but then, i don't want to sacrifice my academic life just because i'm emotionally down right now. that would be REALLY DUMB. so i'm off to the library where i could be ALONE, if that's how its supposed to be. i plan to pass this exam even if i have to do things on my own, as i always have.

chikka bells

2005-01-31T15:20:00.000+08:00

rod (1/31/2005 1:50:54 PM)
From: simpleguy
Msg: hi
*meee* kinsa ni?
rod (1/31/2005 1:51:32 PM) di ako makasabot
rod (1/31/2005 1:51:51 PM) asl?
*meee*sino po ito?
rod (1/31/2005 1:52:06 PM) yun
*meee* yun>
rod (1/31/2005 1:52:11 PM) tumama rin
*meee* yun?
rod (1/31/2005 1:52:20 PM) magkakaintindihan tau
rod (1/31/2005 1:52:24 PM) im rod
rod (1/31/2005 1:52:27 PM) u?
*meee* wer'd u get my contact details?
rod (1/31/2005 1:55:40 PM) sa chikka txt messenger
*meee* pano mo ko nahanap?
rod (1/31/2005 1:55:51 PM) browse ko lng mga members
*meee* tama yan
*meee* wala ka bang magawa?
rod (1/31/2005 1:56:37 PM) sori po...nakkipagkaibigan lng sana
*meee* pano ka nagbrowse?wala namang option na browse ah
rod (1/31/2005 1:56:40 PM) sorry
*meee* pano nga?
rod (1/31/2005 1:58:53 PM) nakita ko lng name mo pagbrowse ko ng mga members ng chikka txt
rod (1/31/2005 1:59:02 PM) sensya na kung nakakaabala
rod (1/31/2005 1:59:05 PM) bye
*meee* san ka nagbrowse?syempre na curious naman daw ako
rod (1/31/2005 2:00:43 PM) ganun?
rod (1/31/2005 2:00:53 PM) pasok ka sa toolbar
*meee* masama ba?
rod (1/31/2005 2:01:02 PM) then invite
rod (1/31/2005 2:01:32 PM) then pasok ka sa registered chikka txt
*meee* bat wala akong chikka txt. registered chikka users lng nandito.tapos kelang i type un name etc pra maghanap.anong version ng chikka gamit mo?
rod (1/31/2005 2:04:12 PM) un na un
rod (1/31/2005 2:04:23 PM) pasok lng po dun
rod (1/31/2005 2:04:27 PM) tuloy po kau
*meee* kelangan nga mag fill up ng at least one field para maka search
rod (1/31/2005 2:38:15 PM) oo nga
*meee* huh?
rod (1/31/2005 2:38:30 PM) y?
rod (1/31/2005 2:38:36 PM) gulat ka?
*meee* so pano ka nagbrowse?
rod (1/31/2005 2:39:43 PM) pasok sa tollbar then sa invite
*meee* tsaka san galing yung "di ako makasabot"?
rod (1/31/2005 2:39:59 PM) then search registered chikka txt
*meee* ano nga tinype mo at nahanap mo ko
rod (1/31/2005 2:40:22 PM) female at phil.
*meee* ok fine
rod (1/31/2005 2:40:37 PM) fill-up ka lng atleast 1 field
*meee* o nga sabi ko nga
*meee* di naman ako ganun ka slow
rod (1/31/2005 2:44:24 PM) ano nga pla name mo?
*meee* wala ba sa chikka?
rod (1/31/2005 2:45:06 PM) meron
rod (1/31/2005 2:45:11 PM) un na ba un?
*meee* alin dun?
rod (1/31/2005 2:45:42 PM) sabi ko *meee* ang name mo..
*meee* malamang?
- the end -
ang sarap sabihan ng "hindi ka taga-UP noh?!" hahaha!! i'm so evil!!!

paperwork again?!?

2005-01-31T10:50:00.000+08:00

etsa pwera na muna ang project.

unahin ang homework,

plus exam.

thesis pa.

gudlak talaga.

witches in nightmareland

2005-01-30T07:55:00.000+08:00

what would you do if, in your dreams, or rather, your nightmares, you find out that the sister of your mother's sister's hudband is a witch. at first you think she's harmless, until she starts to threaten your family's physical and spiritual well being.

it was comforting to note that in that dream, calling upon the Lord brought us salvation. after saying a short prayer, my mom's sister's husband entered the cave-slash-room where the witch locked us and herself in, and brought his sister out. then everything went back to normal. talk about weird.

i woke up remembering the message my mom sent me a few days ago, and i quote,

"the salvation of the just is the Lord, He is their refuge in times of distress. and the Lord delivers and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him." Pslam 37: 39-40

have a blessed sunday!!!

when my dad asks for a date

2005-01-29T21:50:00.000+08:00

this morning while i was at the lab, working on my thesis, my dad contacted me via SMS. read on...

dad: hi langga. will you be free from april 29 to may 1?
me: most probably.
dad. that's great. save this for me. we're going out on a date.
me: hehehe, ok.

at times like these, i know for sure my dad is planning another one of his not-so-obvious surprises.

last time (november of last year), he bought me a plane ticket for home. he didn't tell the whole family that i was coming, and when i was at the airport, i discovered that i was on the same flight as my cousin. he immediately told his mom (who was in iligan already) that i was with him, and she told everyone about it. good thing, my dad called them and told them not to tell my mom & siblings. but still, they found us out when i was 5 minutes away from our house. oh well.

his next surprise was a week or so after the previous one. i was scheduled to come back to manila to start working on my thesis. my sister on the other hand, just started her vacation and was headed for home, again, as a surprise. at least that time, it worked.

this time, i have no idea what my dad has planned but my mom told me that it would be too expensive to involve the whole family, so most probably only me and my sister will be going with dad. hmmm, i wonder, are we headed for boracay, palawan, or hong kong? hahahaha! dream on...

no space for new messages

2005-01-26T20:35:00.000+08:00

perhaps the only person who sends me forwarded messages, apart from my parents, is my aunt, my mom's youngest sister. my inbox has been filled to overflowing so i had to delete some of her messages. here are a few inspiring messages that i didn't want to remove. but then i had no choice. so now, i'm sharing them with you. btw, my inbox is still three messages short of being full. hehehe...

sometimes the strong wind that catches us off guard, sending is right over the edge, is all we need to discover the power of our wings.

we lose the joy of living in the present when we worry so much abut the future. let us give our best and let the Lord take care of tomorrow.

at times, life never seems to be the way we want it, but we live it the way we can. there's no perfect life but we can fill it with perfect moments.

fish crackers and a chocolate bar

2005-01-26T19:00:00.000+08:00

the ece 113 story: part two

i didn't go back to eee to submit my homework. instead i emailed it to kuya blockmate and he had it printed. getting that homework off my hands made me feel a lot lighter and less hot-headed but the sting of rejection still hurt. so instead of working on my thesis or on my biomed homework, i did my laundry and washed my rubber shoes. i think it took me an hour or two to finish. then when i finally decided to do my homework, i fell asleep. i woke up at around 5pm and booh bear had a message on my cellphone.

booh bear: where are you? i'm leaving (the lab) now.
rainbow comet: (i'm at the) dorm.
booh bear: (i'll) be there.
rainbow comet: (ok,) take care.

"promise?" deja vu? maybe, maybe not. i was planning to take a walk around the campus before i read his message, it was a good thing i haven't left yet because i didn't plan to bring my phone. i had him accompany me on my walk and then we bought some supplies (food for when i stay up late at night doing nonsensical homework for subjects that take up your thesis time). anyway, i've been thinking a lot about food lately. during that walk alone, i craved for isaw, donuts, ice cream and what not: fish crackers and a chocolate bar, the last two being my current addiction right now. though i'm limiting my choco intake since it makes me sick. now ain't that sad. therefore, it's back to "staple food" for me.

isang malaking inis

2005-01-26T13:45:00.000+08:00

the ece 113 story: part one

cast of characters: blockmates for six years
rainbow comet: yours truly, the only thorn among the roses
booh bear: rainbow comet's best friend for three years (and counting)
kuya blockmate: matchmaker and booh bear's groupmate
dormmate for six years: rainbow comet's groupmate

after a little basketball accident, i found myself groupmate-less for my next project and responsible for that horrible group homework i worked on last night and this morning. i would have wanted both groups to merge for this homework since all groups in class were composed of three members, except for the four of us: we had to split up because our lab teacher would rather we were too few than too many. for the lecture part, however, i don't know if our teacher would have cared if the four of us formed a single group. maybe i didn't want to know because booh bear and kuya blockmate insisted they do their own homework (our teacher was a faculty member of their research lab). but still, it was a bit infuriating since my "kindness" wasn't appreciated. perhaps the idea that i was stuck with paperwork while they worked on our project made me feel "inferior", being female and all. call me insecure and/or competitive, i will admit to both, hehehe. to make matters worse, since dormmate for six years couldn't leave the dorm, i had to work on our project alone. dormmate for six years told me to ask kuya blockmate to take his place for now, while booh bear promised they'd help me. i haven't spoken with kuya blockmate about this yet. good thing dormmate for six years volunteered to do the next group homework since he would be stuck in the dorm with nothing to do. now all i have to do is suck up my pride and ask for help. of course, i would have to adjust to their schedule. after all, i am only asking for a favor. but this would be a total change compared to working with dormmate for six years since my schedule always dictated our schedule (this is his only subject this semester and i am working on my thesis). and i have three days to adjust to this change and make that stupid circuit work. goodbye thesis!

staple food

2005-01-26T01:25:00.000+08:00

i am currently working on a homework that is be due at 5pm today. since the timing is right, i searched my things for some midnight snacks. actually, i don't plan to sleep until after lunch since i have an 8-11am class and if i went to bed before dawn, i'm sure i won't be in the mood to attend that class. unfortunately, a new topic will be introduced and our take home exam will be handed out. so anyway, here i am, munching on sliced bread and bite-size chocolates (instead of the strawberry jam i bought to go with the bread) and thinking about the last three meals served by the canteen. it made me realize that even though dorm food can be awful sometimes (or most of the time) i'd still choose rice over bread. i remember one time when i had viand to spare and no rice to eat it with, and so i ate bread instead. it just didn't feel right. maybe my new habit of eating bread all day is a good idea after all, if i plan to gain some weight for my final thesis presentation. the only problem is, because of this homework i am working on right now, my work on my thesis has been stalled. and there's more homework for the rest of the week, too. not to mention the projects and the exams. and that would be on the same week as the EEE days 2005 celebration. now, to those who said we've got the best teachers in the country, i'd say i will have to agree!

don't miss out on the fun

2005-01-23T22:45:00.000+08:00

i met my best friend and her boyfriend today. they were kinda disappointed that booh bear couldn't make it (or at least my best friend was, so was i, btw). anyhow, we went around the campus and they bought some stuff for home. then we went to eat dinner. on the way to my dorm, we decided to pass by my next-dorm neighbors, the caterpillar and the volcano. we forgot that we were planning to visit my dorm because from there, we left the campus and my best friend and her boyfriend headed for home. i accompanied next-dorm neighbors to dinner and then we headed home, too. so where was the fun part? actually, it was incorporated in the talk, talk and more talk part of the evening. we talked about their engagement the previous night, a semi high school reunion, which i was supposed to attend. unfortunately, or fortunately (for me!?!), i missed out on that one due to academic reasons and partly because of the weather conditions. but the point is, it's always fun to get live updates from friends, at least for me it is.

so more on the fun part, but this time with a different setting: two days ago, i was supposed to work on my thesis in the lab. somehow, i got bored and lost the drive to be resourceful since my account didn't have root (administrative) privileges to access the serial port, so i decided to take a peak at the electronic prototyping lab (EPL) where my groupmate-and-blockmate-for-six-years and other classmates were fabricating their boards for our next project in communications electronics. since most of the equipment in the lab were out of order, we had to do things the hard way and i immediately volunteered to move the boards while the developer (and later, the ferric chloride) did their job. now that was fun! but i decided then and there that i'll have to wait until the lab gets back to its normal state before i work on some more hardware modules for my 198. i wouldn't risk losing any traces on my boards just because i messed up moving the boards back and forth while they developed and etched. so it's back to the serial port problem for me. still, i would say i didn't miss out on the most fun days of my week. especially since i can't get over the disappointments from my halfway presentation. btw, i got my linux network configured. hahahaha! now, i can do my research and work at the same time... but i'll start tomorrow. i've had enough excitement for one day. good night!

promise?

2005-01-22T21:40:00.000+08:00

HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE PROMISES?

i made one today. and i quote, "see you later."
("later" meaning, around dinner time)
but only after booh bear promised the same.

DO YOU TAKE SOMEONE ELSE'S PROMISES SERIOUSLY?

i believed him. and i believed myself.
i'm sure we both intended to keep our promises.

WOULD YOU DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING TO KEEP YOUR PROMISE?

problem: i was at the dorm. he was at the lab.
but it was way too cold for me to resist my bed.
so i set my alarm for 6.40 pm and was asleep by 5.30 pm.

i woke up a minute or two before my alarm buzzed,
and found the this message on my cell phone:

"where are you? i'm leaving now. i'll be at your dorm soon."

the message was sent at 6.18 pm, broadcast time.
unfortunately, i had no idea how to translate 6.18 pm
relative to "my time".

i had set "my time" early by 10/15/20 minutes.
but in this case, i wasn't really sure how much
since i have never compared it with broadcast time.

i had no way of contacting him since his mobile phone
seemed to be offline. and i was sure he had left the lab
because i saw that his accounts were offline too.

i actually panicked and got a little depressed,
thinking that we'd both be breaking our promises.

good thing i didn't break down and cry, because
a few minutes later, the dorm's PA system squeaked.
i had a visitor... and it was booh bear! what a relief!

so we ate dinner and talked for a while.
then we both headed to our respective homes.

a semi happy ending? i still find it depressing though.
the fact is, waking to a situation like that put me
in a state of shock. at first i even thought that
i was still dreaming when i saw him waiting for me
in the lobby. he had to pinch me to convince me
i was awake.

and now, seeing that i have accomplished nothing today
(though my pc has been hard at work... downloading!)
i have to convince myself to go back to sleep
so i could work on my thesis tomorrow.

sigh. i need a linux master...

keeping warm

2005-01-22T11:15:00.000+08:00

they say february is the the coldest month in manila. it's january yet and i can barely get out of bed, much less get into the shower. my temperature sensor tells me it's 25.5 degrees in my room but i'm freezing already. i mean, i can handle 24 degrees in the lab. but that's because it's from the air conditioning. the naturally cold weather, however is just way too much for me to cope with. earlier this morning, while i was in bed, i thought of the following ways to keep me warm: wear socks, wear jogging pants, wear a sweater, use a blanket (or two), and if all these is not enough, look for somebody to keep you warm, hehehe.

this is insane. maybe being alone is getting to me. i hate it when my roommates dessert me without telling me. hahaha. i guess i'd still miss those kids even if they make me lose my temper by messing with my pc. though i have to admit, having my pc to myself for the weekend could be fun. ooops, i forgot, in order to work (on my thesis), i have to run my pc on linux and as i mentioned in my previous posts, i can't configure my network connection (i tried, but it still doesn't work), ergo, i'll be working offline. so much for fun. well, so long, farewell, i need to say goodbye. for now. hehehe!

be considerate

2005-01-21T08:10:00.000+08:00

how can some people be so inconsiderate? i know that every time i have to wake up really early or sleep late into the night, i always try my best to be quite so as not to wake my roommates and the occupants of our neighboring rooms. how come these people scream at the top of their lungs and bang their doors when they wake up at 6am? i am so tempted to do the same. how frustrating can dorm life be? i've been living here for a good five years and i still haven't gotten used to it. of course, throughout those five years, i have had different roommates and the occupants of our neighboring rooms have changed too. but haven't these people experienced the same hassles in life?

another thing worth noting is that my pc hasn't been the same since i shared my internet connection with my roommates. i don't know why or how, but every time i scan-check-clean my computer for spyware, my account always comes out clean and the problems in their account can't seem to be fixed. my only two options are: to remove their account or to format my pc. but heck, i just don't have the time these days. i can't even setup my internet connection when i run my pc on linux anymore. how on earth could i finish my project with these kids constantly keeping my temper-slash-mood swings erratic? but then, i just don't have the heart to ban them from my pc. besides, i was thinking, since i paid the whole of last semester's fees, why don't i make them pay for this semester? there's three of them, anyway. and the monthly fee has gone down a bit. i deserve to be paid for the damages they've caused on my pc and for the time i spend trying to figure out a way to fix them without compromising my files and my thesis schedule. one problem though: i don't know how to tell them. i'm sure they will agree to pay (hey, it's much cheaper and more convenient than going out and looking for an internet cafe) but then i can also see more problems arising from this. first, they will think they actually have the right to use my computer (but then right now they already act that way, so what difference would that make?). not that it's wrong or anything. i just hate it when they use my pc to flirt with whomever they wish. i mean, hello!!! this is supposedly for academic purposes (only). i hate coming home and seeing them pounding on my keyboard when i am in dire need of my pc so i can work on my projects. sigh.

if you, haven't noticed, the only thing i have been doing here is rant, rant and rant. i don't want to admit it, but that's pretty much all i've been doing for the last two weeks (or more?), whether i'm at the lab, in the dorm or in school. and i'm actually getting tired of listening to myself, if i even listen at all. haha! so, back to my question, how do i fix my pc, my schedule and my emotional instability caused by the heartbreaking fact that i am so close to hating some people i am not supposed to hate? hmmm... hate is such a strong word isn't it? still, i feel that this all boils down to taking some time and at least making an effort to be considerate of others... or rather for others to be considerate of me. mwahahahahaha!

halfway treat

2005-01-19T23:55:00.000+08:00

it's done! it's done! the long wait is finally over! i have wasted 2 weeks preparing for my halfway presentation when i could have spent it fiddling with the serial port of the linux pc and the universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) and serial peripheral interface (SPI) of the microcontroller i'm using for my thesis.

but a lot has happened last week. aside from that accidental "interesting find", i realized that a single day's turn of events can have a big impact on your thesis. last thursday, i realized that i needed 6 RMS to DC converters for my current sensing module. i couldn't find any chip in the local market or in the labs at school. so i got a little too depressed. the following day, i found a circuit composed of 9 op-amps and a couple of diodes for a single RMS to DC converter. i constructed and tested the circuit on saturday, only to find out that it would work only in ideal situations, but it won't do for my project. i gave up the hunt since i couldn't work in the lab on sunday anyway. on monday, my adviser told me to use a buffer and a low pass RC filter for my current sensing module. the 9 op-amp circuit was down-sized to a single op-amp, a resistor and a capacitor. i added two diodes and a resistor, and voila, it worked! i felt so inspired i promised to do good during my mock presentation the next day. unfortunately, i messed up (again!). it was truly a relief that my adviser kept his cool and was as patient as can be with my lack of self confidence when facing an audience. he actually told me to write down my speech and read it to my panel during my presentation. i don't know why i wasn't insulted at all. later that day, my mock presentation went ok as compared to the previous two presentations that made me feel like a total loser.

today, however, i was wide awake by 7am, as i had a problem set for my 8am class. i went to booh bear's lab at 11am to watch his presentation and found the previous group of reporters still working their way through their slide show. he started a good 30-45 minutes after i arrived. anyway, after his presentation, i went back to the dorm, ate my lunch, tried to iron my blouse but then my mini iron got shorted out and burned a hole in my bed sheet (bummer!). then i got dressed as was off to the lab. i was there by 1.30 or 2pm and checked if my setup still worked. i was scheduled for 3.30pm but conditioned myself to be ready by 3pm. my adviser kept on joking that i should skip this day and work on my thesis next sem. the nerve! he should have told me yesterday so i wouldn't have had to worry about dressing up and all. just kidding. he could be a total prankster sometimes.

anyway i waited for around 2 hours, with my hands cold as ice. i walked to and fro in the lab and in the hallway and when finally my panel arrived, i was overwhelmed that they were all guys. can me a sexist but what did i expect, we had no female faculty members in the instrumentation, robotics and controls section of our department. and how come i felt as if i didn't know who the members of my panel were supposed to be? it was announced 2 weeks ago. but what the heck. my presentation turned out to be a joke right from the very start. gone was the formal-straight-english-presentation-and-demonstration i had planned and was expecting. my panel and my adviser kept exchanging jokes. and those who asked some questions just couldn't understand what i was trying to say. it was frustrating that the only "mistakes" they found were those inherent of the robot arm and not of my project. how i explain something i had no control of? but it was a relief that when my adviser tried to defend me, they still couldn't understand what he was trying to say. but this time they just had to take his word for it. blah blah blah.

so how did i end my exhausting, tired-of-waiting, nothing-accomplished day? booh bear and i headed to the chocolate kiss for something to bite and i actually ordered lumpiang ubod (!) and hot water, while booh bear ordered some cake and bottomless iced tea. we chatted for a while (it has been a very long time since we've talked about stuff other than our acads) until the caterpillar contacted me on my cell phone to ask if i was temporarily-free to watch a movie. so we headed to sm north and watched "meet the fockers" and after that had dinner at tokyo tokyo. to think, i had my roommates save my dinner at the dorm. what can i say today was just one of those days.

imagine your panel telling you that what you were planning to do for your thesis has never been done before and actually hearing your adviser defend you and put his faith in you by telling them, "she can do that". it was just too much to bear. especially since that same adviser kept on teasing you about giving up your thesis and starting over next school year. kinda cool, don't you think?

well, i'm getting tired of remembering today's events and whatever else there is to say is floating off to dreamland so i better stop for now. i'll be working on new modules starting tomorrow so i don't think i have the right to be back until the end of the semester. but knowing myself, i'm sure i'll be dropping a line or two every now and then. but for now, bye bye and enjoy the chilly weather. God bless!

complacency and false confidence

2005-01-16T22:10:00.000+08:00

hala na. 3 araw na lang, halfway na. bakit kaya hindi ako kinakabahan? nakakatakot naman ito. buti sana kung kumpleto na ang 50% ng proyekto ko. mukhang hanggang 30% lang ang kaya kong ipakita sa aking panel. pero tapos na dapat ako sa 50%. kulang lang kasi ang gamit namin sa lab. naku, sapat bang dahilan yun para maipaliwanag ang pagiging kampante ko? sana lang talaga magiging maayos ang araw na yun.

blast from the past

2005-01-15T01:15:00.000+08:00

i cannot believe what i just saw. for some reason, i was able to find a way into reading my cousin's thoughts. the same cousin i mentioned in one of my earlier posts. i was just so surprised that at first i couldn't believe that i was reading something written by someone i actually knew. i couldn't even recognize his writing style anymore. of course, there were some familiar words and phrases that made a connection i couldn't place. then i thought: coincidence? i guess not. what i really don't understand is that why, after more than two years, has my life has gone back into this loop? i am on the verge of finding a way out of this pothole i am in (i found an alternative for that RMS to DC converter i so badly need for my 198) and all i can see is another one right in front of me. and there seems to be no way around it. guess you could say i'm hooked, whether i like it or not. i just decided that i'm going to have to like this, for now. still, i find it comforting that we're still at it: even in our absence, we both seem to have an effect on each other. maybe realizing what that we lost something will make us want to find each other again, one way or another. but that's just my side of the story. as many things have changed, i don't know when and how i will see him face to face. i just hope i will be ready by then.

cranky me

2005-01-14T18:25:00.000+08:00

proof:

1. i didn't greet my blockmates when i arrived
2. i didn't let booh bear sit beside me during class
3. i ignored all "ang sungit" and "ang taray naman" comments
4. i ranted and ranted and ranted to my labmates
5. i was all over the lab and logged on to 3 PCs at once

all because:

1. i had to approach four of my previous teachers
2. i have never done that in my entire life (and all in one day, too!)
3. i have no idea where i could find an RMS to DC converter
4. or how to make one
5. i have at most four days to work this out

HEELLLPPPP!!!!!

in the mood for what???

2005-01-12T23:45:00.000+08:00

what a relief. last night i thought i was going to lose it all. my whole project seemed to be headed straight to the reject pile. i had to take a whole day off. amazingly, after a 21-hour rest, the components of my project regained their health, and i wish i had too. but that's not how it works. nonetheless, i'm still glad that somehow, i still have a chance to prove myself worthy of being an affiliate of our lab. just this afternoon, i watched our one and only applicant give her report on a dynamic walking algorithm for biped robot and i was amazed at how prepared she was. after her report, we gave her an orientation on how things were in our lab, etc. to the extent of nearly welcoming her as a probationary affiliate. of course, only our lab head, a.k.a my thesis adviser, has the power to accept her. anyway, back to my inferiority complex... i always felt i wasn't good enough to be a part of this lab. fortunately, or unfortunately, i am still here. i just hope and pray that i could stay until i finish my project and graduate. as for whatever it was that made my project work earlier today, i can only be ever so grateful. i promised myself that i WILL be ready for next wednesday. i just need to get enough (but not too much) sleep and nourishment. wish me luck!

cold feet

2005-01-11T23:00:00.000+08:00

no, its not the weather, but my feet are really cold, and i mean literally. i think i'm sick. or maybe i just want to be sick. the halfway presentation is 8 days away and i have to do a major overhaul on my project. okay, so i'm exaggerating a bit. it's just really weird when your adviser thinks something's wrong with the way you think. i have to admit he was quite disappointed with me today. but not enough to get all moody and be unreasonable. i can't believe he even let us stay beyond our 9 pm curfew. but that was because my labmate had the guts to ask and our dear adviser was in such a good mood. trying to bond, perhaps? i don't think so. but whatever the reason, i'm sure glad he doesn't seem to be as apathetic as some people claim. he has been really patient with me throughout the sem. but that doesn't change the fact that i can't seem to finish my food, i get sick when i stay too long in front of the pc, and i feel dizzy every time i make sudden movements. i need to rest... i need a big break... and having a successful halfway presentation is what i need... or want? well, whatever! right now, they're synonymous. do NOT argue with me.

post friendship days

2005-01-09T14:50:00.000+08:00

what would you do if you saw a cousin, or any friend you haven't seen for years, standing in the same room with you? don't you think your natural reaction would be to call out to him or her?

well, i was with the volcano earlier today and she said that my cousin was standing right behind me. i honestly didn't notice him but the fact that he didn't even try to get my attention somehow hurt my feelings. i know we haven't been particularly friendly for some time but i was hoping that he would have learned to let go of some issues that really shouldn't concern him. apparently i was wrong. too bad, for him. joke. i can't say its his loss. i have to admit, i miss being friends with that guy...

makialam ba?

2005-01-09T10:40:00.000+08:00

i arrived at the dorm at around midnight last night and i saw my roommate's boyfriend (with someone my roommate sees as a threat to their 3-day old relationship) on his way to philcoa. should i mention this to my roommate or not?

by the way, if you want to watch oceans 12, make sure you are seated far from the viewing screen. this was the first time i arrived home feeling sick from watching a movie and not from the bus ride home. but overall, it was a really fun movie. i just might consider watching again if i wanted to accompany a certain someone who might have the time to watch it when i'm free too.

so busy and yet so lonely

2005-01-08T19:15:00.000+08:00

how can i be very busy and very lonely at the same time? i hate weekends like these. i've got lots to do but because i'm depressed i can't get anything done. grrr!!! and i just have to get sentimental everytime. goodbye acads. hahaha just kidding. so to remedy this, i'm off to watch oceans 12 with the caterpillar and the volcano. hopefully that will be enough of a distraction to get me to start working again. oh please, please, please make me finish preparing for the halfway so i could proceed with the rest of my semester. did i mention i'd be having an exam 3 hours before my halfway presentation? perfect EEE timing, as usual. woe is me.

world domination!?!?!

2005-01-08T09:35:00.000+08:00

nightmares come and nightmares go, but i just can't seem to shake the last one i had a few nights ago. this wasn't one of those recurring dreams but i remember a few scenes quite clearly. i can still see the missile headed straight for me and i remember running for safety in a mall, of all places. it was business as usual and the people didn't seem to worry about the missile that just blew the top off a building not so far away (that's where i came from). anyway, as night drew near, i ran across an old friend who knew the minute she saw me that something was terribly wrong. she offered to pray for me and for those i left behind (i went ahead to find a way out of the city... i was also pissed that my companions weren't that bothered by the explosion that almost took their lives). so there i was in the middle of the street trying to hail a taxi. then, out of nowhere, people came rushing out in the streets. there was a demonstration of some sorts and apparently some religion was used as a means of world domination. sccaaarrrryyyyy!!!!! i wasn't really able to leave the city and i don't know how this story ends. but the fact that this kind of dream entered my brain at a time when all i think about - day and night - is my halfway presentation, really worries me. i'm not sure i know why. maybe i need help. mwahahahaha!!!

let the stress begin

2005-01-03T21:15:00.000+08:00

ece 198 halfway mode started today. that's why i found it weird that by 10.30 am i was working on another project, the 19KHz and 38KHz tune filter for ece 113. that was due to the fact that i found myself awake as early as 6.30 am and thankfully debugging the timer for the velocity monitor didn't take too long. unfortunately, the tune filter that had worked in yamatake didn't work in e-lab and my groupmate and i eventually gave up because apparently today wasn't the deadline. oh the joys of procrastination, heeeheee! so i decided to do some library work but changed my mind because i had no idea what additional stuff i needed for my literature review. instead, i spent two hours fabricating another one of my boards, though this was only about 3 square inches. tough life. especially when i have a wound in my right thumb. imagine soaking that in ferric chloride. major eeewww! then i went back to the dorm and spend the rest of the afternoon and early evening in front of the pc. there goes another confession. i gotta get back to work. bye-bye now. i hope my pc won't miss me again. by the way, i got a new mouse. had to say goodbye to my first one. and i tried my mic yesterday. guess it worked all right, i hope. smile!

during the christmas break, i...

2005-01-03T19:05:00.000+08:00

1. had dinner with my mom at the courtyard of the national museum
2. worked alone at the lab for 3 days straight
3. got lost in laguna with the caterpillar and two of her labmates
4. walked 10 kms for 5 hrs
5. climbed mt. makiling to visit the blok-blok mudpit
6. spent christmas eve alone
7. watched Princess Diaries 2, Bridget Jones' Diary 2, Raising Helen, Home Alone, White Chicks
8. overdosed on chocolate krinkles
9. got sick because of no.8
10. stayed at home for 5 days and 5 nights (because of no.9)
11. read 6 romance/suspense novels (because i was grounded: see no.10)
12. attended the paseo-ayala new year's eve street party with my fellow KNL orphans
13. went to nayong pilipino with booh bear

*** i know, i know... i WILL cut back on my pc time... i just had to get this off my chest ***

i'm back, i'm back !!!

2005-01-02T21:20:00.000+08:00

happy new year!!!

at last i'm back at the dorm with my hands on my pc. oh how i missed my pc. hahaha, i sound pathetic, don't i?

after two weeks of internet-free life, i've decided to cut back on my pc time (like how?!) and focus on my project.

but a lot has happened and i definitely would want to post my stories. guess i'll have to wait until after my halfway presentation. so for now you better check the caterpillar's story on our laguna misadventure.

for my new year's eve "misadventure of the orphans", better wait til i find the time to put the happenings into writing.

bye bye bye !!!

whY Oh yoU

2004-12-15T11:50:00.000+08:00

"You wouldn't want to be called Mr. U. Everytime somebody said, "Hey, you!" you would have to turn around. If someone asked you who you are, you would have to answer, "I am U." You would keep overhearing snatches of conversation which would bother you. If someone were to tell a friend, "I want to see you tonight," you would wonder what was meant by "you." You would keep asking yourself, "Does "you" in this case mean "you" or "U"? If "you" means "U" and "U" is me, then that lady wants to see me tonight." And then you wonder why. I tell you, Professor Sherman, "U" is a bad name." -- Mr. F., The Twenty-One Balloons

taong room, taong lab

2004-12-14T19:10:00.000+08:00

sa mga araw na ito, hindi ko akalaing magkakaron ng panahon na mag-isa ko lang sa aking silid sa dorm. maging sa lab, kung saan dapat nagtatrabaho ang mga may thesis. ngunit parating na ang pasko at ayaw na pumasok ng mga tao. gusto na lang nilang lumabas at magpakasaya. kaya laking gulat ko nang mapansin ko na tila lagi akong walang kasama sa dorm o kaya sa lab. sana hindi ganito ka lungkot ang pasko, lalo na para sa mga hindi uuwi o kaya sa mga walang uuwian.

198 over eng'g week

2004-12-13T20:00:00.000+08:00

ang kulit ni manzo. niyayaya akong manuod ng indakan, libre niya daw ticket ko, pati pamasahe, pati dinner. sayang talaga. kaso kelangan kong matulog ng maaga kasi may lab meeting ako bukas. another progress report is due and i can only hope that what i've been working on the past week will present itself properly while i face my adviser. bow.

2 0 4 6

2004-12-12T23:35:00.000+08:00

ang ganda ng pagkagawa !!!

astig yung kuha ng yosi smoke !!!

astig yung kuha ng clouds !!!

if wanna get depressed...

watch this movie !!!

when disaster strikes

2004-12-12T11:30:00.000+08:00

the first thing that suffers is my bed which will most definitely have: a pile of clothes, a stack of papers, an unfolded blanket and sometimes even some leftover food (nasa plate naman pero gross pa rin!) :p

moody

2004-12-10T22:00:00.000+08:00

its 9.30pm and am still sitting in front of my pc. i haven't even changed my clothes or removed my shoes yet. and i have been here since 3pm, right after i took that horrible ece 113 first exam. i still hope to pass the exam, though. i guess i'm just weighed down by a lot of stuff. and i cant seem to move on just yet. quite literally, too. read: i've been here for the last 6 hours! i was supposed to go back to the lab later today (around 4 or 5 or 6pm) to work but then i got tired and couldn't rest because i've been online with lotsa people and i haven't done my laundry yet. boy, have i got a lot of excuses for doing nothing. my adviser is gonna kill me. but i have another one: i'm gonna pay another visit to the university pool tomorrow so i gotta sleep early tonight. haha top that! but then 9.30pm isn't early anymore, is it? and i right now i'm afraid that i might not be able to swim tomorrow after all. you see i'm kinda expecting the_dot soon. so you know. the main problem here is that it always comes at the wrong time. worst of all i feel really guilty when (during these days of the month) i get to be really moody and i just wanna scream at everyone who gets me upset even in the slightest of ways. how utterly unfair to those innocent bystanders. haha! pero hello, like i care. how could i when my own world is crumbling down on me. hehe selfish ba? ayoko na nga. gudnyt!

dexter's laboratory

2004-12-09T20:00:00.000+08:00

dexter doesn't work in his bedroom, does he? i figured that's why he built his lab. i should learn from this little fellow and start using the lab as a work area and my bedroom as a resting place. that way i would learn to focus on the task at hand. weird lang kanina nawala kami sa sked. i was supposed to work in the morning but only got the chance after lunch and i had to leave early because i had an exam to cram for. it was just a bit of a surprise to see the soft sides of people you do not really expect to be rooting for you. take my adviser for example, at times all he could think of saying is that i should give up my project but it surprises me when he puts in the extra effort to reach out and encourage me by saying i just need to get used to my tools and that i could finish my project. makes me wanna do all i can to still be ahead of schedule. wish ko lang maayos namin ang sked sa pc. pordat may apps na uli kami at makikiagaw na din sila sa equipment. add to that yung projects sa 115 at 113. sana lang matuto akong matulog ng 9 or 10 para gising na ako ng 7 at nasa lab na ako ng 8. hahaha asa pa!!! :D

wake up call

2004-12-08T21:30:00.000+08:00

it was at 3am this morning that i got a mysterious alert from my phone. it just started vibrating even when i turned it off before going to bed at 10pm. perhaps it wanted to take the place of my alarm clock since i didn't get up and study for my 8am exam. actually i have been suffering the consequences of not waking up to study. i actually hated myself for not reviewing properly. the exam was fairly easy if i had studied enough. but for one with a poor memory and an anti-biology inclination, chances are i wouldn't pass. how sad. and i thought i was inspired because i heard the carillon this morning. guess it just gave me another excuse not to review. i'm taking another exam this friday, hopefully i will have studied tomorrow afternoon. i still have a couple of projects to work on. and i might not go home for christmas. i don't want to risk not finishing my project and losing my chance to graduate by march. but hopefully i'll make the cut. because i don't want to spend christmas away from my family for nothing.

birthday babysitter

2004-12-05T20:45:00.000+08:00

i just came from a former roommate's birthday bash. it was set at 11am and by 10am i was panicky. i didn't know how to get there and my escort was running a bit late. actually i was too. but it didn't matter. we were still the first to arrive. it was somewhat weird too because the only reason why the group was not composed of an even_number was because unofficial_one of us had to be at the province the day before. anyway, the land_family had two adorably pretty little girls. one was a bit of a host, too. she was the one who told told us to sit and to eat, etc and she even started conversations. we became really good friends for that afternoon. she and her younger sister even let me do their hair. wala lang. guess this made me realize that it is fun to be with kids. but i know i'm not ready to be with at even one kid for 24 hours straight. just a thought (haha!) :p

not your ordinary saturday

2004-12-05T20:30:00.000+08:00

i didn't sleep friday night. or rather i slept for a measly 1.5 hours. now why on earth would i do that? nope its wasn't for school. i don't have a sleeping disorder either. i just didn't want to sleep. for one, ayaw gumana ng pambihirang notch filter. secondly, bawal mag-overnight sa lab. hello!!! it was the perfect time to go back to working on my 198 project since walang tao kasi bumabagyo (nung thursday). but no, i had to go home at 9pm and sulk at the dorm. instead of crying or breaking down i just chatted with my high school friends who were online. it was fun because there were so many of us. well, there were 6 of us, 4 were in manila (2 of whom were just right across my dorm's basketball court, 1 was in tandang sora, and i was in molave), 1 was in davao and 1 was in delaware. san ka pa! so we were up til 5am i think, except the_caterpillar who decided to sleep at 3am. i woke up at 6.30am because the_volcano begged me to wake her and also because i planned to be at the lab by 7am so i could work that stupid circuit that just wouldn't do its job, hoping that by 10am i could go for a swim at the university swimming pool. but no, hapon na gumana yung circuit. as in mga 5pm na un. of course having less than 2 hours of sleep also made me decide not to swim anymore even if the weather was tempting. anyway missing lunch and dinner at the dorm somewhat pissed me off. and get this: when i finally went back to the dorm, because it was mutya_ng_molave night, it was terribly noisy, add to that the event at the bahay_ng_alumni. what a day. but due to fatigue i was asleep by 10pm. i didn't even bother to look for dinner. anyway, december 4, 2004 was "not your ordinary saturday" because there were too many people in EEE it made me feel like it was a monday. a drastic change from my lonely thursday and friday at the lab because typhoon yoyong decided to drop by. so there. i gotta start writing that project documentation. then i'm supposed to figure out a way around 198, cram for my biomed and 113 first exams, prepare for eng'g week (even if i don't belong to any org and i don't plan to attend any event) and finally there's the christmas break. details for the new year (and the new life) will be uploaded later. bye bye bye! (hint hint) :s

rainbow comet's PC how to's

2004-12-02T11:30:00.000+08:00

dear friends, indulge me i am bored.

i am also sick and tired of looking after those who cannot possibly care for my beloved PC.

allow me to present "rainbow comet's PC how to's":

01. how to take care of the AVR :
turn on/off right before/after turning the computer on/off

02. how to take care of the processor :
do not overuse; do not leave running while idle

03. how to take care of the memory and storage devices :
always scan files for viruses

04. how to take care of the monitor :
use with electric fan; turn off when not in use

05. how to take care of the electric fan :
use with the monitor; turn off when not in use

06. how to take care of the glass filter :
hands off and keep away from moisture and sharp objects

07. how to take care of the keyboard :
be gentle and keep away from food and drinks

08. how to take care of the mouse :
be patient and make sure the ball is on the mouse pad

09. how to take care of the PC table :
keep away from food, drinks and moisture

10. how to take care of the speaker :
turn off when not in use

to keep the dust away, please cover the work station after use.
make sure there isn't sufficient heat to burn the pc covers and start a fire.

when using the PC, please do not place the pc covers on the bed.

finally, when what you're doing is not important, keep your hands off the computer.
(from the caterpillar)

mid-week getaway

2004-12-02T10:30:00.000+08:00

compliments of pfizer, abbott & glaxo-wellcome

dec 1 08.30 pm picture perfect dinner at pier one (thank you, pfizer)
dec 1 10.00 pm sleep over at manila diamond hotel (thank you, abbott)
dec 2 08.00 am breakfast buffet at century park hotel (thank you, glaxo-wellcome)

all because my dad is an eent specialist... mwahahahaha!!!

note:
i had to take the taxi from the hotel to the dorm
because typhoon yoyong was coming
to think winnie (here last week) just left

buti na lang mabait yung taxi driver
kahit makwento siya, hindi naman uminit ulo ko
so keri lang... ang saya saya!!!

hello world!

2004-11-28T08:45:00.000+08:00

I read "Hope for the Flowers" last week, thanks to The Caterpillar. I found it really amusing that Stripe's first words were "hello world!" It reminded me of the first C program given to us 4 or 5 years ago. I'm no programmer but I sure am thankful that the first two software modules of my undergraduate student project have been tested successfully. Anyway, to escape this week's stress, frustration and depression, I decided to go swimming yesterday. I guess I stayed a little too long in the water because believe it or not, I had a mild attack of hypothermia. I got over that and went to the lab to work, boring stuff mostly. Then I spent the rest of the day with the one person i have been trying to avoid this week. Somehow we were able to bridge the gap that had formed due to a really lousy schedule. Anyway enough chatter; here's to my first post... "hello world!"