Eagle's Point, Batangas

Just got home from our office outing in Eagle's Point, Batangas. Too tired to write about it, but am too proud to share the pictures I took of the place. Our office only has one "photographer" (Nikko), and he is known for taking pictures really splendidly. Since I have the office camera with me while in Batangas, I thought I should try my hand at photog, so someone could take group shots that will include him. Here's some of what I got, but you can click here for more.













Will write more about Batangas next time.

Flooded

The path walk in front of our office is. I bet Katipunan Avenue also is. The rest of the Ateneo campus will be, too, in a few hours.

That's how torrential the rain is tonight, and it came with lightning/thunder. And would anyone have guessed it, we are having our annual office outing tomorrow! Google! Our swimming trunks and really skimpy bathing suits would sure look hot in the rain. Two of my officemates are also sick and won't be coming with us tomorrow, effectively cutting down the fun factor by 20%. This must be the best summer outing ever.

I might be wrong, of course. I hope Nikko brings his laptop (the only one in our office who has, and it's a Mac G4 mind you), and I could bring my (my brother's, I mean) books. I've been raring to re-read Philip Roth's The Breast, and to celebrate Kurt Vonnegut (who died almost a month ago), I'll also revisit Slaughterhouse-Five.

Maybe I'll throw in John Irving, just for some assurance.

Why does it always have to be beaches for outings?

Wild at heart

I just have to write about it. Changes do happen overnight; the nerfy loser gets to go on 29 dates in one night. So what, the hunky jock next door had 25 dates in his 22 years? Now he can kiss my skinny ass he's been wanting to kiss for so many years now but can't for fear I might think he's gay. He undoubtedly is, by the way.

I must thank Milan of No Bounds Events, an event-organizing and marketing demigod and a good friend, for the makeover. For so long I thought me going on a date would be a live, personal Hurricane Katrina, but peer pressure certainly have its pros. Friends know I have a different taste when it comes to people I hang out with - much more on my imaginary dates, and that was all that got me going on that speed dating thing.

I still can't stop laughing at the memory of it. The girls were generally nice, save for some really boring ones, but the really good ones more than make up for it. More than the actual prospect of landing a date, finding ways to entertain myself amidst all the forced interaction and fighting redundancy were the main challenges for me.

I should go out more. They say life is good. Now I think I should get one.
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Can't wait to watch the Blake's and Jordin's final performances tonight. Hope Blake wins tomorrow!
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I still don't have my normal voice back. It's still hoarse and husky. While three girls on the speed dating game thought it was sexy, I am unfortunately not a masochist so I'd rather not have sexy voice than bear this really irritating pain in my throat whenever I speak. They shouldn't worry: there are other parts of me that are sexy (written in a split second surge of macho virility). I think I'm nagbibinata (still am at 22), Ate Mae thinks I need antibiotics. Based on the preceding line, I think I'm just experinecing extended puberty, or I need a straight jacket.

Just finished my College Preparatory Class. Covered Renaissance philosophy, to Social Contract theorists (Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau), and the early Enlightenment and positivism. Whew! After 4 sessions in four weeks, I felt more comfortable today. I feel that my strength really is in the Enlightenment until postmodern philosophy. I could almost say I took the course twice in college, though not due to any delinquency. There's the standard history of western philosophy course (Soc Sci 2 in UP Diliman), and the introduction to sociological theory class which is hopelessly intertwined with the developments in western philosophy since the Enlightenment (sociology was born out of that period, was called social physics then).

Next week I'll have Marx. Oh God, help me. The easiest to understand can be the most difficult to explain, not because of its complexity but rather its volume. I don't have the slightest idea how I can cram Marx (context, reactions and all) in 3 hours. Gudlak.

In the meantime, I'm going on 40 dates tonight, despite losing my voice to cough exacerbated by me lecturing to an audience of 50 or more earlier. I hope my dates take pity on me and give me 40 Tuseran capsules.

The body

I'm having one of my severest bouts of cold and cough today. Can't even sleep, it's too hot in my room. I think my really large room mate is absorbing all the cool and converting it to warm, pungent air. Good thing he's on night shift (he's a call center representative). At least for the most part, when he's already out at work and I can then sleep, our room can just seem to be warmer than your usual. Not hot.

Hot air exacerbates my condition. It's as if the humid temp also melts my snot, making my nose runny. And I'm sweating like hell. There's that feeling that everything bad's happening to me all at once, making me more irritable, which then gives me the urge to throw my stuffed teddy pig at my room mate. But before I do, I realize I can simply run up to our rooftop and let the evening breeze cool me down. It's not really that cooler apparently, but at least up here, the air was blowing.
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Melinda bye bye. You are indeed one heck of a singer, but you don't offer something new to us audience. Week after week we expect the same Melinda singing, and we do get it. That's nice. But Blake is simply more original and more daring while Jordin, though not as good as you, just keeps getting better and better each week. At least they give us something to look forward to. Simon got it right: my commiseration to you, and congratulations to the two.
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The history of western philosophy went in this order:
Greek antiquity - Medieval/Dark Ages - Renaissance - Age of Reason - Enlightenment - Modern - Postmodern.

No Right to suffer

I honestly think an abstain campaign can do us some good during these times. The family went to the voting precinct at noon today to practice the hallmark of this thing we call democracy, and I cast my ballot with only one sure name in mind. That name I wrote in a single line in the senators list, and then I put huge Xs on the rest.

Many people I know know that I am going to vote for only one candidate in the recent election. I could have appreciated any reaction suggesting I was being "too picky" or "too choosy" but frustratingly, what people usually tell me is that my vote would be sayang. It's an opportunity missed, they would reprimand me, with a patriotic tone as if encouraging people to write names in the ballot is nationalism defined. Exercise your right was their mantra in the meantime, and I think they were not wrong in pulling people out of their apathy to take a few minutes (or hours) of their sorry lives to make the future of this equally sorry country even sorrier.

I thought it was funny. Of course, I did exercise my right to suffrage. And my almost empty ballot contained a vote well-spent. I think more than writing names, it's about bestowing the power to make or break this nation on a certain person. I refused to vote for the lesser evil. I did not vote just because a candidate is "winnable", or out of fear that I'd be left out of the bandwagon. I voted for only one, the one I would allow to make decisions on my behalf, to govern me. Not because he was less rotten from the decomposing lot.

I think that's democratic enough.

Faith, Hope & Trick.

Thanks to my brother who's been downloading copies of Buffy's Season 8 (in comic books my friends!), I have the coolest BtVS artwork ever. Doesn't show B, but features the more kick-ass slayer in Slayerville.

Isn't she nice?;-)