I cleaned my area last Thursday. 

And then I attended the NIP recog the day after.

This picture I grabbed from BA's tumblr.

  

Manong

There will always be time for fussball.

Geek stuff or fashion, there's always Ma'am May. ;)

Leaving NIP is bittersweet.

I don't have pics for a grad entry yet, next time.

IPL Grad Partey

I confess, I had a camera with me but I didn't cover the event. But quite luckily, because I didn't know I had little battery life left, I got Milli to snap a picture of our group before everyone headed wherever.

Top: Jill, Nicole, Tricia, Tin, Ganni, Eloi, Ianne, Master

Bottom: Jeff, Thirdy, Andy, Atchong

Shiz, the only way to see the pictures from my other labmates is through facebook!

Defensive

One step closer to graduation! Thanks to bear hands, friends, google, panel members, and of course dear adviser.

Past 3 PM yesterday, we lost power in the building. Andy and Jonats were still in the middle of their defense and I was cramming some fits in my plots. In the midst of UPS machines beeping annoyingly I almost thought my defense would have to be resecheduled. Gosh, how awful would that have been.

Ma'am Jing :)

Let's do this! 

Several minutes later my adviser and friends came up, Andy's defense was over. My turn wasn't until 4 PM but I was advised to get ready because my defense can still push through because it's still light outside and overall the situation was under control. When I got down to R211, there was a generator and a flat screen monitor. Love you VIP people. Pdfs of my slides were distributed to my panel members and we were set.

Nearing the end of my abstract slide, we gained power. Yes. The presentation went okay, though my panel members commented that I did not explain much and did a lot of hand waving. Sorry Sirs! And I will make my paper worth of the results, swear. I will take the revision notes very seriously.

We got the power.

Dakilang adviser, Sir Ganni.

The super Ma'am May.

The infamous bear hands!

Panel members: Dr. Almoro (front) and Dr. Ramos (back).

BA took pictures, posted on his fb wall. Pictures of other people who had their defense are there as well. I think it has sunk in now, we are done batch '06! Bar revisions, we are set to march! I'm so happy, I can't think of anything else to say.

Finally.

Sir Ganns treated our group to dinner at Kamirori. We even had a "bati na" picture taken, I think in Ate Ianne's camera. Then after, fellow IPL batchmates and I went to Padi's Antipolo and chatted away until 2 AM over drinks, pizza and sisig. The big hurdle is indeed over. Pirmado na! 

Everyone who helped make my defense possible, thank you. Special mention goes to Che, who according to Ma'am May has offered to give her laptop to one of my panel members so that my slides can be viewed. <3

Cheers!

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Photos from BA :)

Tuballa-Pang 2011

My long day ended in a very happy note. Thanks to Tracy and James for being so game and sport about their mock wedding! Their batchmates really supported the event, and so I think it's safe to say everybody had an awesome time. Seriously, sometimes it's really just the people that make everything come together even with the glitches or cracks.

Cheers to the completed Physics Month!

Psuedo New Year's Resolution

I don't believe in making New Year's resolutions. It's kinda pointless, not to mention stupid, to wait for the start of the year to decide to do something for the better. Counterintuitive don't you think?

Anyway, that used up absences issue that I still haven't cleared yet has really highlighted for me the fact that ever since I learned to slack and come to class late I haven't made the effort to do anything about it. And so I will, to the best of my abilities, come to class on time, every time. It's a bit weird that I'm resolving this now that I'm about to graduate (naku dapat lang) but I need and must do it, for STS and for good measure. 

Sabi ko nga kay Ancis, freshie ako ulit sa STS. On time at takot umabsent. Hehehe

It's really hard not to care when you're in UP~ the university of honor and excellence where everyone is constantly vigilant and active in all issues of Philippine society, and where freedom is guarded at all times. 

This proposed budget cut is utterly unacceptable. Higher education is by no means a futile pursuit for the government; the youth must be nurtured and given ample opportunities because they are the future. In other words, in my opinion, the youth is the best investment and quality education is the best fertilizer.

Quality education for all.

Some links:

UPD's USC website

UP College of Science

For a first hand account of the rally, visit my friend Jane's blog.

Christmas Concerts 2010

I just love Christmas. Everyone is kinder and more generous, and all the more happier. It's when families come together and celebrate under one roof, and all amazing family dishes are feasted upon. Lights are everywhere, and you just know that there's an air of merriment and love all around.

Love Actually. Photo taken here.

Christmas music is festive and quite addictive sometimes, so conceirtos featuring these are big highlights of the season in my opinion. Orchestras and chorales performing these tunes are a marvel, and I try to see as many of these that I can. 

Since it's most convenient for me, my suki is the UP College of Music. Their December calendar is filled with exemplary performances, usually for minimal fees. Another great venue for concerts like these is the Cultural Center of the Philippines. 

Enjoy! :)

Anong bagyo?

I honestly did not see this drinking session coming. In a blink I was at Cantina Katips with my groupmates Nicole, Andy, Elo (and Mabi) and our adviser, plus we also invited Ate Nic. Oh well. Spontaneity is cool. We had fun. Though maybe we had more fun if... Hahaha.

It didn't occur to me to take pictures until Sir Ganni and Nicole decided to have a contest and chug a glass of beer. Mwahaha. Nicole won, but Sir Ganni wasn't really competing. (Update: Nicole fell asleep the instant she hit a bed)

In photos: Sir Ganns, Nicole, Andy and Ate Nic 

Dear ol' adviser

What's more interesting is that Ate Ekkay and Sir Chris dropped by Cantina as well. That's one long table of physics geeks. :)

Winnie Monsod's Last Semestral Lecture (10/05/2010)

I submitted several questions for PDI's First Edition last summer. I was hoping the one that got me my tickets is the one asking the candidates what they would do to stop the brain drain in our country. None of my questions were asked and this has nothing to do with Winnie Monsod's last lecture except to me, I know. But somehow after seeing this clip I remembered that incident and I felt good, knowing that somebody whom everybody listens to is like voicing what I have in my head. :p

Only children know what they are looking for.

Of course I wouldn't have understood The Little Prince as thoroughly if I weren't in Ma'am Lalaine's class. I've always considered it a very witty, almost philosophical, book but I didn't extract so much meaning when I first read it several years ago. Now, it's like a whole new different book that I've read especially when our class got to discuss balance. (Update: Love story pala ang The Little Prince, as in more than just the symbolism of the rose. Gosh, I'm dense!)

Simply put, we need balance in our lives. Balance between work and play, balance between greed and service, balance between theory and practice. Grown ups, the little prince said, are only concerned with matters of consequence. It cannot be helped. But what's important is to not get caught up in the oh so important things such as money, politics or golf in order to appreciate sunsets, rain and drawings which are equally important.

We were supposed to write a comparative essay among The Little Prince, The Pearl, and The Giver. I didn't come to think of balance being one of the concepts that these three share. It really struck me how important this is and how I totally missed it, and I've come to realize I find this specifically important because I am afraid to lose the child in me. Very much so. I'm pragmatic and serious most of the time, and I can't help but think I need more poetry in order to see things not just as they are but also what they can be. I'm afraid of being an unbalanced and messed up grown up.

I'll read The Little Prince again after a couple of years, and I'm really curious what I'll pick up then.

There are endless significant lines in the book but I'll end this post with a classic quote:

 L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

What is essential is invisible to the eyes. 

Good Times!

This weekend has been fun! My super buddies Jamie, Ninya, Jomax and I had a movie marathon last Friday. I attended the KaSCIyahan cheerdance competition as well as Truce yesterday, it's the awarding ceremony slash party of KaSCIyahan where NIP was the overall third best institute. And today, my batchmates and I had our graduation pictures taken. And of course, UP Pep Squad bagged the championship crown earlier in the UAAP Cheerdance Competition! Woohoooooo!

If you haven't seen the routine, here is a YouTube video. Sorry for the quality, but it's the best available yet.

Such a shame that this weekend has to end.

Kamon!

I handle responsibilities pretty well. It's a bold statement to say, but I'm quite sure being responsible is among my better traits.

Our lab is having our annual welcome party tomorrow afternoon, a holiday. What's worse is that a senior member of our subgroup proclaims tomorrow morning as an impromptu cleaning session. Oh my gaaaaaaaaaad.

Oh, come on, on a holiday?

Good thing that my parents will be coming and I have a pretty valid excuse to skip at least one laboratory activity tomorrow. I never thought laboratory activities would jam and control my schedule so much. So much for considering grad school.

I am a semicolon.

I love my English 11 class. I may not be getting the highest grades, but I am learning so much. Ayos :)

Today we discussed several poems, including Jose Garcia Villa's concrete poems: The Bashful One and The Emperor's New Sonnet. I am totally clueless in poetry, as I have said before, and these two are among the poems in our reading list that I cannot grasp by myself. But today, I have found admiration for concrete poems especially The Bashful One.

Concrete poems are poems that rely on their aesthetic organization to extend their message. Or something like that. The Bashful One is basically a poem that includes a single punctuation mark, a comma is the widely received understanding of the said punctuation mark. (Hay poetry you are in so many levels subjective!) So what does a comma mean? Commas are used to pause, usually for emphasis or division in a sentence. It can mean hesitance, prudence, delay or whatever that may cause discontinuity. But right after the comma, there is always something that follows, a continuation. You can always depend on that.

The Bashful One with the space divided into quadrants.

Now the placement of the comma in the third quadrant, in terms of Cartesian space would render it in the space of negative x and negative y. Going down the literature route of this conjecture, it is in a position where the comma would seem unimportant since the most memorable parts of a piece are usually in the first and last portion or in the top left and bottom right of the space. We read left to right, from top to bottom and the comma is located where one would most likely to miss it. So why in the world would Jose Garcia Villa place the all indispensable comma in a quadrant of little importance? Wala lang.

The bashful one, the comma, is in literal terms the shy little punctuation mark. Let's dissect the title for some more insight. First is the definite article 'the', joined by the adjective 'bashful', and then the indefinite pronoun 'one'. It's almost oxymoronic that the definite article and the indefinite pronoun refer to the same object. The contrast is further enhanced when you take into account the term 'one', which is used here as an indefinite pronoun while it also means singular or unique. These choice of words make you think, what the shy one is shy about or why is it quiet in one corner. It's like the bashful one is really a modest and humble little comma, which is timid and simple yet full of substance because it always follows through. At this point, the bashful one is not just a comma anymore. A poem may refer to a chair, a punctuation mark or a blank space but in the end it's all about humanity, about human nature. Crazy and amazing at the same time.

Before discussion, we were asked if we were a punctuation mark which one would we be.  A majority said they were question marks and a handful declared they were exclamation points. I simply said I think I am a semicolon, because I pause, but then I continue. Oha. Spontaneous answers are the most honest answers, but even I was surprised how my answer came to be. Even more so when we were closing in on The Bashful One when I realized how similar how I felt as a punctuation mark and what that heck of a poem touches on.

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On a side note, my ostentatious and very loud seat mate had a bit of a slap in the face when our teacher concluded that great (read: intelligent, skilled, etc) people are usually quiet and shy. Haha. In yo face!

Now I Know

When we missed our flight in Singapore, we met Andrea. She missed hers too. The only difference was that, what we thought to be our flight schedule was completely different from what was really in the itinerary while she knew her schedule and she was trying to beat the time. As Bea and I were waiting for our flight, I asked aloud which of our situations were more unfortunate. There were several reasons why one case was worse than the other, so we just agreed that all of us were victims of the disease called stupidity.

It's not as easy as determining which feeling is better, getting an uno or getiing a tres. I'd say tres in a heartbeat, because if you're gunning for tres it means that you're hanging by a thread and you're in a very sticky spot and to get a tres would be like a divine miracle that will surely buoy your confidence. Not that I think getting an uno is not as happy, because it is. It's just that you already know you're getting a very good grade no matter what. I'm not really grade conscious so I think this, but hey my logic seems about right.

So here is how I determined which of the fates is worse, Andrea's or ours. And damn, the parallels I am realizing are so annoyingly true.

I spent most of the day in the lab. Having woken up late for our Optics seminar, I skipped it and went directly to IPL. I rearragned and realigned my set up almost the whole afternoon, I do hope it's correct this time. Then before we went home, Sison told us through GTalk that Ate Ianne was going to their house to cook and eat. And so we came. Yes, Mangs was also there. Hehehe! It was great, we made pasta, had pita, prosciutto, salami, cheese and a bit of wine. Italian dinner to the max. After cleaning up, we popped in Hot Tub Time Machine.

Earlier, I agreed to meet Tia at Jollibee Philcoa at 9:45pm, she was picking up Bea at Katipunan and it was a perfect opportunity to get a ride home. I was very conscious of the time, and I wanted to get going at 9:20 but the movie wasn't finished yet and there was reassurance that it's going to be done in time. But then again, Murphy's Law is stronger in cases when you most want to keep things in a certain way more than anything. It was quarter to ten when I checked my phone and I had several missed calls and a couple of texts already. I made haste, sent a wave of distress and killed the fun  we were having; I feel so bad we didn't even get to say thanks and all sorts of courtesy to Sison's parents. What made me even more guilty was the sarcasm in place of direct disapproval in my texts with Tia.  And when she mentioned that it was traffic in CP Garcia, there went a cue to go take a taxi. Needless to say, I went home on my own.

Punctuality is a trait I do not posses entirely, specifically in coming to class. But I do take pride that I try my best and almost always succeed in being on time for meetings, set dates, or just plain agreed upon schedules. Time indeed is precious, and I hate to waste anyone's time. At the same time, I abhor waiting so long for people who know when the set meeting time is, unless you're Rainier or you're Nins who I know will be at least 30 minutes late. That is in fact, why I do want to be on time, because I hate people who come late without warning.

 And so that was my day, quite productive, quite scrumptious, quite hilarious, and quite frustrating. At least I had one unanswered question resolved.

Siomai Luck

Kuya Benj told me I was too hyper last Friday. I'm not sure if that observation was true, but my Friday was  pretty good. I think the siomai incident is to blame.

I had only one class last Friday, because Sir Val had his passport matters to attend to and my P.I. 100 was suspended because of the IC fire. As expected, my English 11 was a little intense (si Ma'am kasi) but still interesting nonetheless. I like strong-willed teachers as much as easy going ones. After class, I was in the mood for a snack so I went to the stands on the high ground at the back of FC and went straight to the first stand. In the mornings, Jane and I go here for monay with palaman and in the afternoon most likely with BA for siomai or whatnots. I got four pieces of siomai, which turned out to be the last ones the store had. Tadah! It's mean and selfish but I was so elated by the succeeding events: people wanted siomai, while I was eating siomai near the stand, and there was none left. Gosh. Perfect timing Tricia.

So then I headed to the new building to wait for Kuya Benj, Mangs, and Master Alis. We were meeting Sison at SM North to see A-Team. It turned out that we were watching Karate Kid instead. I was initially disappointed because I really wanted to see A-Team, but Karate Kid definitely delivered. It was fun and Jayden Smith is an effective comic. Plus my A-Team hopes were not left in limbo, Tia treated us last night to a screening using her Citibank promo passes. Thanks Tia!

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Photo from Wiki