REPORT, OR DROP.

it came from my MPs 10 professor. apparently, he knows that someone's been absent from his class for five meetings already.

so i'm dropping that subject next year. right at bat for 2008, eh?

and there goes my mom randomly uttering, "wow, may anak akong cum laude!"

no, i haven't told them. yet.

hoooo, i feel down.

-------

a high school pal greeted me happy valentine's day this early. told me that he wanted to be the first one to greet me that.

some people are really strange, not wanting to waste a single minute. heh.

and speaking of high school, i seriously browsed my yearbook for the first time ever.

gave me lots to think about... and fits of laughter.

-------

tagaytay today, baguio tomorrow. it's the perfect christmas break... but for two reasons.

i have a sprained foot. and sprains hate cold weather. as luck would there be, i also got the flu from santa!

and... how about homework? don't forget the exams too!

anyway, i played tennis here with a newfound friend this morning. i was owned miserably. either i really suck, or she was really damn good.

and yes, sprain or no sprain, it would've been the same.

-------

more tennis whatnot:

"balls are meant to be lost
rackets are made to be broken
in the name of tennis,
love [matches] happens!
(amen!)"
-rj? and gab

tennis + acads = stress
but tennis is love! and love = 0.
thus, acads = stress.
furthermore, no acads = no stress!

-------

Tennis UP will celebrate its first anniversary next year! special events in connection to that will be posted as a follow-up.

with that, happy 2008 to the world!!!

Paranoia

my dad arrived early, but he forgot to pay some bills. since he was already tired, he asked me to do it for him... and i had no choice but to comply, gladly - it's been two days since i've gone outside.

while waiting for a jeep, one long-haired guy wearing a yellow sando and cargo shorts approached me and asked:

"boy, anong oras na?"

"ah, sandali lang po..." the kind-hearted yours truly replied as i took my cellphone out from my pocket (i don't wear a watch) to answer his question. "...alas-tres po."

"alas-tres? okay, salamat." he then looked up to a dark sky, and muttered under his breath, "naiwan ko kasi cellphone ko eh... baka traffic na mamaya..."

then out of nowhere, a thought hit me: he's after your cellphone.

it was a completely baseless notion, but it made me chill nonetheless. a jeepney finally came, and so i entered. to my horror, he followed suit, and even took the space by my right - on which pocket i had my phone.

i told you, he's after your phone. he asked the time to find out where you placed it. by this time i was starting to feel stupid for being such a nice-ass.

seconds after, we both paid our fare. according to that sequence, i'd be going down first, so that cooled me down a bit, and i was ready to throw the whole issue out. until the driver slowed down upon seeing a bearded guy hailing his jeepney.

it turned out that mister beard-o was an acquaintance of yellow sando guy. furthermore, it happened that the only space available was between me and his friend, thus he took a seat there. the only comfort that i had was knowing that i was sitting closest to the jeepney entrance. if ever things went whack, i could make a jump for it.

while pondering on my options, i felt fingers grasp the right side of my jeans, as if it was pulling something out. even through the cold and windy ride, icy sweat was rising from my chest.

"bayad po," grunted the beard-o. i heaved another sigh of relief within me. minutes later, i breezed out of the jeepney intact. then i realized that the bills were clutched in my hands. my heart stopped thumping for a moment as i checked my wallet for the money. after rummaging for a bit, i cracked into a wide smile, nearly laughing at myself.

what in the world was i thinking? i wondered, as i looked out from a jeepney window on my way back home. that was plain judgmental and overanalytical, harsh even. hmm...

by this time i was almost zoning out. a thin, lanky, loosely dressed guy yanked me out of it, though, pressing a pointed thing unto my ribs. i stole glances at other passengers - one guy wearing all black, another donning a bandana. both were equipped with sharp knives. the rest were obviously shocked at the turn of events.

"boy, cellphone mo lang. bilis."

=======

purely fictional, don't worry. that's what happens when you're stuck at home forced to breathe paint residual odors together with your usual oxygen.

anyway, to my QueSci colleagues, i found out Sir Lorenzo's new raket: writing/editing sudoku puzzlebooks. he has a 5- or 6-edition series, currently out in bookstores near you.

nil. nada. none.

what's the use of waking up early for your only three-hour class for the day when there won't be any class?


where else but in UP do you find security guards and cafeteria concessionaires filling up 4-star sudoku puzzles in a jiffy?


when was the last time i actually read my high school yearbook?


did i see a red moon when i searched for it?


why do i even bother asking myself these questions?


haha. wala lang. but the answers to the first four questions are: nothing, nowhere, never, no. again, wala lang.


p.s. erratum: the final deficit in the UP-dlsu match was 28 points, not 18. sucks to be a maroon fan.

the ray of light

home is behind / the world ahead /
and there are many paths to tread /
through shadow / through the end of night /
until the stars are all alight /
mist and shadow / cloud and shade /
all shall fade / all shall fade //

my friends, thank you for pointing out the joys of a six-day weekend. as for my part, the star wars bi-trilogy, the harry potter series (1-5), and if anyone recognizes pippin's song, the lord of the rings, all of them. that's thirty-plus hours of viewing time. i wish i hadn't started on hp, though. they might be at par with other box office hits in terms of dollar sales, but in overall grandeur, nahh, not even two cuts away.

regardless, it was an upgrade over excruciatingly waiting for a fighting maroon to exhibit some miniscule form of defense.

meanwhile, who said we have to wait for a "ber" to start christmas festivities? or maybe it's just my dad who fired a gun too early, but i heard him singing white christmas two days ago.

actually, i'm running out of creative juices, but with a stroke of luck, a shred of tomorrow's news, coming from a reliable source through y!m express:

m*_t*: THE BEGINNING OF THE END... OF TOFI! JOIN THE AUGUST 21 MOBILIZATION, 1130AM AT THE AS LOBBY! EMULATE PUP WHERE 5K STUDENTS WALKED OUT OF THEIR CLASSINGS, CAUSING THE JUNKING OF TOFI. PLS PASS - SPARE and UPX

look, i don't have anything against them fighting for their own causes, for others' causes for that matter. but this guy just instructed us to emulate another school's histrionics when we should be the trendsetters. and we are part a University, an institution dedicated to help our families and fellowmen through the best education our country and taxes can offer. so please, if i may say this, let our action materialize inside the classrooms, not out of it.

however, what struck me the most was one of the two organizations purportedly involved: UP Xientia. Xientia, for starters, is derived from Xientian, a term used by students and alumni of my alma mater (QCSHS) to identify themselves as part of the said institution, usually within themselves, but nowadays even to others.

the latter was reinforced with the advent of this new organization, which apparently aimed to gather UP-D Xientian alumni, for whatever the cause they agreed upon. i, along with many others, was invited to this organization, but declined as i did not see the need to differentiate myself from others who do not come from my alma mater, if ever that was their aim in the first place, and i thought it was.

obviously, i missed the mark by a mile. i can't help but wonder if the whole organization thinks as one in this issue, as claimed by that announcement above. now i wish classes would be suspended tomorrow as well, for whatever reason anyone might mind conceiving.

anyway, the sun was up earlier this day, from the east it rose. the clouds were nowhere behind it. with sheer stupidity, i went up to the rooftop, as always, whenever i needed a boost of inspiration. i saw my own shadow, long and flat against the sloping roof. and there i found it - my writer's epiphany. you love it when it happens. i'm already working on it.

p.s. i would like your opinion on a poll i would be posting. details are to follow. thank you.