a culture of nonsense

sweet 'n sour november

2005-11-01T08:57:00.000-08:00

all saint's day at home, cousins visiting later, and Hugo the two month-old Dachshund barks for attention. i know the sentence/fragment construction leaves much to be desired; at least I know what's wrong. i am a hopeful case.

we respected the dead yesterday. watched zorro in the evening. mom commented that it was like a "pinoy movie", that she liked the first one better. i loved the horse.

nope, no update yet on my iloilo trip. seems i've started stagnating again. wonder what i'll write for the twg anthology for next year.

Bully the rabbit-cat seems to hate the wiener-dog. she doesn't like anyone else taking the throne (my lap).

been ages since i've last seen Tea Cake. mebbe i'll invite him to come over later. if he's not doing anything.

yes i will write. i think i need to. it'll keep me alive, because i'm not much of a speaker-robot so i can't apply to call centers. not that i'd want to (ha ha ha). no offense to the agents out there.

cousins might be here soon. later, then.

i'm back

2005-10-23T04:28:00.000-07:00

just came back from Iloilo where i attended UGAT's conference on the anthropology of crisis. yap it's cool, even cooler was our place on the beach just beside UP in the Visayas Miag-ao, five minutes' walk away from the main conference hall. charly and i were already jamming while the others were still on their way to their respective hotels and beach resorts. poor things. (sir joey and ka puroy, burns and sir yayet, dr sevilla, dr padilla, mam sanchez of ust were among those.) thanks to judge legazpi for the eye-popping discount and view of the sea. to kuya miong who saw to our comfort, to the whole nobleza family in Janiuay for the hospitality and everything else.

i need more time to properly tell the story of my iloilo trip (yasmien kurdi in miag-ao church!); right now i'm just plain tired. some other time, eh? watch out for the following:

I. SM City Twins
II. Bahay Kubo sa Kampo
III. "Sa lugar lang"
IV. Magpe-present ka?
V. Viva Villa Marina
VI. Kandingan and other stories
VII. Once again, the Ilonggos

okay, then.

it's over

2005-10-17T10:11:00.000-07:00

the semester, that is.

after a period of I'm-down-in-the-dumps-again-because-of-Tea-Cake, life is again bearable, sweet, and, shall i say, happy.

yes, the semester's finally over, nevermind how i actually did. important thing is there's always a next time (i hope). now it's all about taking a break. on wednesday i leave for iloilo for the UGAT conference in Miag-ao. thanks in advance to charly for the accommodations, company, bodyguards, tour, and everything else. see you in iloilo, dude.

good luck to this year's ust sociological society. may the proceeds from last week's socionight be more than enough for your activities, and may there be some left over for you guys to have some fun at the end of the year. sorry i wasn't able to give more, you know i'm still a student like you guys (and very much unemployed).

it's been a while since i actually felt there was nothing for me to do, and i can do whatever i want. so later i'll be heading of to Tea Cake's. dvd day and maybe some window shopping. laze around, play with mishka's kittens. contemplate on the meaning of life (not!).

so there, i'm happy. maybe i'll cook something.

FUN FACTS!

The tomato is not a vegetable. It's a fruit.
The peanut is not a nut. It's a legume.
The panda is not a bear. It's a raccoon.
My cat Peewee is not a boy. He's a gurl.
My cat Bully is not a cat. She's a rabbit.
Tea Cake is not a cake. He's a meatloaf.

Full speed ahead

2005-10-09T10:08:00.000-07:00

i wish.

still have two more papers to do and i'm running out of sense. my ethnography doesn't look like it's heading anywhere (that right?), and my last reflection paper, i think, would have a maximum of three measly pages. that's five pages away from the regulation (that right?).

other than those concerns, i actually feel pretty good, thanks mainly to Tea Cake. i actually forgot a 'special day' and it was him who reminded me--this is the first time this happened (i actually forgot!), and i blame my schoolwork for this. october 7, friday, october 7, friday--lab manual and bioethics paper submission. i actually forgot the other thing. sorry, dude. it won't happen again.

plus, a few more other surprises. Tea Cake was weirdly in the mood for shopping (not just window shopping--take note) yesterday and insisted he get me something. what's up, i thought. i was usually the one who got him stuff. since he looked serious and was in a truly good mood, i let him.

i still chipped in for gas, though.

aaargghh...one week to go

2005-10-05T07:40:00.000-07:00

..and still, four papers to finish (20 pages-8 pages-12 pages-3 pages). this is a time in my life in which i wish i don't have to sleep. wish i could use all those hours i spent just zzzing around. wish i had a storage bank of sleep. oh well.

the thought of the semestral break pushes me on, plus i do have something to look forward to: the UGAT Conference on October 20-22 in Miag-ao. ho-hum. until then, the pc is my best bud.

the first of octomember

2005-10-01T13:15:00.000-07:00

after a long break from any lit-related events, attended Reuel Aguila's book launch last night at 70s Bistro (thanks to JunO for the invite). nice. celebrity readers: Ricky Davao, Cherry Pie Picache, Pinky Amador, Direk Joel Lamangan. cool format--booklet and a cd, 200 bucks. not just an audio cd, but an audio-visual cd. akdang bayan series. asteeg.

i'm counting 10 days before the semester ends. after that, happy happy happy. or not. i dunno. if only bliss came in cans...

hope floats...and guess what else?

2005-09-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

I have just suddenly realized that I am losing my ability to think creatively.

Picture this: a small flat, curved bone lies on a piece of Styrofoam in a pot full of water, concealed in a paper bag. “Identify this!” was written on the questionnaire. The answer is obvious. I write, RIB. Then came the follow-up question, for two points: “Why the ‘name’?” I stared at the paper stupidly. What could be so special about the rib’s name? Nothing came to mind. Goodbye two points.

I ended up losing three points on that part of the laboratory exam. The correct answer, folks, is that it’s a FLOATING RIB, so-called because it’s not attached to the vertebrae, unlike all the others. The rib is floating in a pot of water. Duh. I feel so stupid, and “uncreative”. Well, how should I know that the professor didn’t put that together so the others wouldn’t be able to peek? Anyway, some of the others got it; I think I would’ve gotten it correctly had I not been so damn…exact? Uptight? Dimwitted? Dense?

And perhaps I’ve also lost my knack for looking—in a deep sense—or searching for detail. I also wasn’t able to see that (in another question) the skeleton in front of me (“Charlie”) had two left legs—set-up by my professor, of course. Tsk. I’m slipping, slipping.

Urgh. Good thing I still have another chance to redeem my stupid self—the bio-ethical issue paper. My classmate Richard and I will be tackling the Genographic Project of the National Geographic (with IBM and the Waitt Family Foundation). It sounds really interesting. From the website:

“National Geographic and IBM are embarking on a landmark five-year study that will assemble the world's largest collection of DNA samples to map how humankind populated the planet. The Genographic Project will use sophisticated computer analysis of DNA contributed by hundreds of thousands of people—including indigenous populations and the general public—to reveal man's migratory history and to better understand the connections and differences that make up the human race.”

Ooooh. Retracing footsteps. Knowing your roots. Neat. And all it costs is $99.95 (plus shipping, handling, and tax if applicable). Anyway, for those interested to find out more, just check out the website: http://www5.nationalgeographic.com/genographic.

Okay, that’s all for now. Gotta take out one of my damn floating ribs and feed it to the dogs. The other one maybe I’ll keep. Or see if it floats in the toilet. Yay, experiment!

information overload

2005-09-27T12:37:00.000-07:00

Cripes.

Plugging the laptop, I saw ants. In the socket. How do you like them fried?

If we humans could only have the option to delete unnecessary details from our brains, a lot of us (including me) wouldn't have to toil over memorization. Short-term memory space: 500 items. Used: 248. Pick, pick, pick. Delete these 36 items? Delete. Memory refreshed. You may now add more information.

Okay. The metatarsals are... blah blah blah. Mrs Ples is a blah specimen. There are blah thoracic vertebrae. Tush, easy, easy. Nothing to it. Just gotta open my short-term memory files...

Which reminds me: how many bones are there in the human body? Back to fourth-grade science: 206 adult, near 300 for newborns. 27 in each hand. (Tama ba?) Uh, lemme check later.

Three more items to finish for the final exam paper on this subject. A reflection paper and a mini-ethnography for World Ethnography. A meditation (paper) and final exam for theories. Good thing i brought my lab assistant Tea Cake with me last night; at least i got to finish the cranial measurement activity (also, tested the wrist blood pressure checker on him--his BP was 114/73, pulse rate 82--eh, not bad. Still, those things can be pretty unreliable.). Tea Cake's first time to hold a skull in his hands (five skulls!). Plus all those neat stuff in the lab. Haha. I'd like to think that now he understands my dilemma. Yes. Empathy at last.

Anyway, back to work. I hope it does rain later, or i will really fry those ants for crying wolf.

balik freshness, balik bounce

2005-09-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS to Joseph Saguid for being the Maningning Miclat Grand Prize Winner (Filipino division)!!!

Congrats din sa mga ibang nanalo. Kung tumuloy ako sa pagsusulat at sumali sa mga contests ay malamang wala akong napanalunan--ang gagaling ng mga kasabay ko e. =)

Okey. Sinusubukang kong tapusin ang (take home) physical anthro final exam ko. May lab exam pa kami sa Wednesday. Di ko pa ulit nababasa 'yung ethnography ni Desjarlais (para bukas). Di pa rin ako nagsisimulang magbasa tungkol sa postmodern anthro theory. Wala pa akong nagagawa para sa mini-ethnography, di ko pa tapos 'yung lab exercises, di ko pa name-memorize 'yung mga parts ng bones... medyo ayos na ako sa vertebrae (cervical, thoracic, lumbar--di ko lang mai-oorder), radius & ulna, clavicle, tibia & fibula, patella, sacrum & coccyx... di pa masyado sa ribs & scapula. Ewan. Kaya magla-lab ulit ako mamaya. Isasama ko si Tea Cake para makilala niya ang mga bespren namin sa lab--iba't ibang bungo, buto, reconstructions ng mga skull finds ng Australopithecus africanus, Homo habilis, Proconsul africanus...

Baka mga buto ko ang susunod na ilalagay du'n a.

deed is done

2005-09-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

Guess who surrendered first.

Blogging while Tea Cake is out buying some vinegar, i try to lick my wounds.

I finished and e-mailed my paper to my professor (5 pages), skipped class, and headed straight for Marikina. As i passed by my building in UP (ten past five, an hour and ten minutes late for class) i tried not to curse myself for being such a damn lazy ass (yeah, yeah, i blame myself for not doing the paper early enough to give myself some time to properly curse myself).

Now for more school work: research on cloning (another subject), and read for my other subject (same professor as above). Finally i'll be reading Clifford Geertz. Then next week, the last batch of the theorists. Then the final exam. Durnit i don't even know how i did during midterms. All the cramming would've been fine if i'm not on probation. Maybe i'll do the smart thing next semester and just take two subjects. Or if i do want to punish myself for all the crap i've done, maybe i'll take the full load. Then i can teach next year. Whoopee. I'll teach my students to read a book from the last chapter.

What's all this ranting about school? Well, do i have any other life to speak of?

Oh yeah, i do. Tomorrow is little Shayndel's birthday party, to which i'll gladly attend. Happy birthday, kiddo. Try not to be like Ninang Lauren when you grow up, eh?

I'm dead

2005-09-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

My second stab at maintaining a blog, let's see how many weeks i finish before i start another again.

It's two hours forty minutes before my class starts, why am i blogging instead of doing my 8-page paper on Tsing's and Martin's book? Hell if I know what to write. I've toiled for three hours now (not counting the time i spent contemplating on the d*mn paper yesterday), and all i have is three pages of blah. The guide questions seem simple, it's the going about how to answer them that kills.

Man i feel so dumb. It doesn't help that I'm (only?) in my first year in my MA studies and I have classmates who have studied cultural anthropology for a much longer time, who may eat, breathe, and shit anthropology and who may have already firmly glued all those wonderfully elegant-sounding terms and concepts into their minds. Okay okay, I still have a long way to go.

Two hours thirty minutes. I've already decided not to go to class. I haven't finished reading the new book anyway. I'll just e-mail my g*ddamn paper, if i get to finish it. Then i'll see if Tea Cake has changed his mind about wanting to see me. He didn't call last night, no text message at all today. I said I'll find a way to see him, and i always do, no matter how difficult it is to go to Marikina after six. Two weeks ago I spent an hour being squished by fellow commuters in the attempt to get a ride to their place. If i had known it would take me that long, i would've simply walked. Does he appreciate my efforts at all? Or does love also mean never having to say "thank you" too?

Aaargh. Ranting done, now for some writing. Blog again tomorrow. I hope.