When I was younger I used to think that having my birthday exactly a month after Christmas was fun. I mean, I just received Christmas gifts then exactly a month after I would be receiving more gifts as birthday presents.

But the story turns different when you're 21 and you didn't get any Christmas and/or birthday gifts.

Another thing about January is that my family is celebrating 3 occasions in just a week. My birthday is on the 25th, Mom's is on the 27th, and my parents' wedding anniversary is on the 30th. Instead of having separate celebrations, we would just celebrate once. Kung baga: One shot, big shot.

For this year, Mom and Dad have decided to just eat dinner in Alabang. We were thinking of something Japanese but we also wanted something Italian. Then my hunger for Buffalo Wings, pasta, and pizza prevailed so I suggested something light, not too sosi because that would cost a lot too. We ended up eating at Don Henrico's in Filinvest.

It took a zillion years for our orders to arrive so I told my brother Abi to pose for a pic with me.


I wanted my sister Jhozelle to be in the pic as well so I tugged her but Abi thought he'd catch the end of the camera frame.


My mom fancies things like these. You know, family stuff and all. She wanted a better pic with Abi wholly in it. She decided to take our "siblings" pic herself.


I sent her the photo but she wanted another one. Okay, Mom. You're the Mom here.


Blame the blurred shot on Mom's shaky hands.

After all the shots and another 84 years finally our orders arrived. I wanted to take a pic of Mom and Dad but Dad was too shy and Mom was too, errmm, willing. So I took Dad's pic while he was not looking. Or maybe he was just acting it all out.


I don't know why I didn't take Mom's pic. Maybe because she was too eager to have her pic taken and I was too excited to eat the gigantic Buffalo Wings.

It was a nice family bonding. I hope next year we have something like this again. Plus gifts.

****

I am watching the ABS-CBN special on Manny Pacquiao thingie right now. I am not anti-boxing and definitely not anti-Manny; I am just anti-Manny-celebrations right in front of my face all the freaking time.

It makes me wonder if the whole of Mexico and the rest of the Chicanos all over the world partied for a week and made Erik Morales a present-day hero when he first won over Pacman.

I mean, yeah, Manny made the country proud and all the Filipinos worldwide and for a minute there it's like the fast-ticking clock of Manila stopped when he faced Erik Morales. I don't wanna be "KJ" and all but the celebrations are just too much for me.

I hope Manny's parties end here. C'mon, we got to go back to our real lives. Would Manny share his prize money with the families living along Tutuban station? Would he shelter the homeless? Would he build roads to have easier traffic flow? Would he fund Science and Technology researches in the Philippines to make Filipino lives better than ever before? Would he help me buy my carbon nanotubes that costs $500 per gram?

Boxing and more boxing. Is this the way by which our country's "bus" is moving on? Is this how we are moving forward? Because if it is, then I'm getting off.

Charing!

By the way, that guitarist of Sandwich (playing right now) who looks like Mong is so hot. Is that Mong? Uuuy, first name basis. Wahahaha!

Eh, Sandwich pa ba ang name nila? It's like their Nth line-up change since Marc left.

****

I just visited Pam's blog and like what she just posted I thought I was over Havaianas already. But no!!! Not when I saw this from the Havaianas US Website.


WAAAAAAAAH!!! I gotta have this Brazil Cup Havaianas!!! It's available in blue too but yellow and green are very Brazilian and very Girl Scouts. Say I'm crazy but I used to think I was Brazilian in my past life. There's something about Brazil that makes me wanna go there or makes me feel connected to it. As in. As in as in. As as in in.

Plus it's a soccer thingie and it's just so hot. I have friends who are soccer crazy and the sport is really cool. If only I could go back to college, I'd enter the Futbol Varsity. (Chris, totoo yun!)

So to all my family and friends in the US, you know what can make me really happy for $18.00. I can handle the Fed Ex shipping. Puuuhhhlease? Preeeeety Puuuhlease?

I think I slept 16 straight hours last night. 16 hours. Wow. That's the longest I've slept during the last 2 weeks of exams.

I stayed up sleepless last Thursday night and I was so tired when I got home from school yesterday. As soon as I hit the sack, it was like being whacked by Stephen Chao's soccer ball in Shaolin Soccer.

The tiring Thursday night was because Erick and I have decided to help out Eds, Jolleen, and Noemi with their thesis defense presentations for yesterday. I really don't know what it is with thesis defense, but I'm sure it gives all graduating students the creeps. Thesis defense is like going through hell, burning in there for longest 30 minutes of your life with your heart beating faster than the speed of light. We've been there, we knew how it felt like, and so we wanted to help out our undergrad friends.

After my electroanal exam, I had dinner first at KFC inside the campus before going to Eds' place with Jolleen, Erick, and Noemi.


On our way to Eds' place, we stopped by one of the many Starbucks branches in Greenhills to get our coffees.

As soon as we got to her Camp Crame place, we took all our paraphernalia and messed the whole place.


We took a shot before we started doing our own stuff.


Not to mention, the over-flowing caffeine for the night.


Eds started reviewing journal articles and taking down notes for her oral presentation.


Jolleen made revisions with her presentation. Jolleen, bakit ang daming phones sa harap mo?


Erick gave Noemi tips and lectures on how to go about the IR spectra.


At the same time, Noemi was busy trying to figure out if she could get this piggy bank to undergo IR spectroscopy. (Actually, she's thinking if she could get any coins to flip out from the slit)


And I got ready to go crazy over my Physical Chem assignment.


At 3 am, we were all still up and busy preparing for the oral presentations. After my Phy Chem assignment I helped Jolleen with her Powerpoint, Eds reviewed more journals, Erick copied my assignment, and Noemi finally gave up with the piggy bank and just read some notes for her presentation.


At around 5 am our eyes were still without a blink.


And our things were still all over the place.


We started having mock defenses with me and Erick as the panelists. We gave our, ehem, professional comments and asked some questions about their thesis like as if we were real panelists. Haha..

We all went to school with sabog looks. To think I still have to attend Phy Chem class with Erick and we were already 45 minutes late. Good thing Doc Sev dismissed us early, and so I had the chance to still help out Eds with the finishing touches of her presentation.

The defenses were in parallel sessions so I had to miss Eds' and Noemi's presentation because I had to listen to the Analytical Chem presentations.

Vadge was the first to present his Optical fiber sensor. Hannah and I were seriously listening to him. Or so we tried to look like we are. But we really are!


The day ended with the undergrad I worked with being the last to present her thesis. Her Powerpoint had some problems in the middle of the presentation so I told her to just continue talking. Good thing she brought an extra copy but it was unedited. Her presentation turned out to be good because she was still able to deliver despite the technical problem.

On my way home I thought of my own thesis defense a year ago. Tension was high, I had jitters, and the whole CSJ office was crowded with Chem students. Our formal attires were hanging on the CSJ cabinets, laptops everywhere, everyone was editing his/her presentation, the place was all messy, and we were all running around.

After our defense, it sort of ended everything. We sort of can feel the graduation air but we cannot speak too soon because we still had to take the Correlation Course. But still, thesis defense is thesis defense. Being able to finally get over it just feels so damn good.

Congratulations batch 2006! Now you only have to worry about the Correlation Course! Oh, and of course your defense scores!

To my Kuya Jess, Mom, Dad, Jhozelle, Abi, Mama, Ate Peachy, Ate Alma, Ate Ricca, Joreen, Kris Crooc, Teij Bonaobra, Minay Estacio, Chris Ramirez, AJ Molina, Emar Largo, Hannah Vergara, Syk Concepcion, Fr. Ching OP, Eds Briones, Fads Carandang SDB, Oyet del Rosario, Dianne Mancita, Mary Alarcio, Peter Pardo, Anna Sanqui, Leah Casio, Garet Marso, Sheila Colandog, Teppy Puno, Hayden Gil, Jee Lacson, Sheila Sta. Maria, Gordon Marilao, Paula Cabrera, Prudence Dy, Prince Estanislao, Lani Soliven, Shen delos Santos, Clarisse Cortez, Jonuel Alejandrino, Nica Vidaure, George Dongallo, Kitt Bernardo, Martin Bernabe, Marc Marquez, Faith Feliciano, Joy Cruz, Julien Gonzales, Ciely Tuazon, Vanessa Bautista, Tin Pagala, Dennis Reyes, and everybody else who made my birthday really special...


YOU ALL ROCK!!!

In exactly 55 minutes, numbers will change and I will soon write 21 on blanks that ask for my age.

Few people asked me what I want for my birthday. Someone even joked, "Don't tell me you want world peace."

If you guys insist, then I must oblige.

1) Havaianas (39/40 Brazilian size. 41/42 for allowance.)
2) Books
3) Dishwalla CD
4) Bags
5) Chymera from the Body Shop
6) Tumi wallet
7) Bulgari Blu for women (40 ml)
8) Jacket
9) Jeans
10) Nike Apparel (Shirts!!!)
11) Nike shoes
12) Nike bags
13) Technomarine (pink)
14) Roxy backpack
15) SM Gift certificate
16) Starbucks drinking glass (yellow with stars)
17) iPod mini leather case
18) Plasma TV
19) Anne Klein watch
20) Round trip package to HK Disneyland

Oh, and I really do want world peace! Honestly!

****

I used to think that this coming birthday of mine is my saddest ever. But then I figured, there's so much to be thankful for in this life, and that life itself isn't enough to enumerate each one of them.

Kuya Jess, thank you so much for 21 wonderful years of lessons, triumphs, and defeats. Even if I am wishing for a lot of things *ehem* this birthday *parinig, parinig*, I know deep inside me that it's only you who can fill all the emptiness within me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Please always keep me and my family safe in your arms. I love you, basta Ikaw. =)

****

Because Kuya Jess knows my thesis is becoming a burden already, guess what? I have a new research to work on.

Haaay. Si Jess talaga. Works in mysterious ways. =)

No, scratch that. Make that: how to CRAM for a test in Quantum Mechanics, say, in 5 hours?

*Take it from the major crammer herself. There is always hope to ace a test in Quantum Mechanics, which by the way showed a probability of 0.0125 x 10 to the (-876487543) by using Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Close to zero. But heck, there's hope, right?*

ONE. Take your major reference material (e.g. your book) out of your bag/baul, place it on your table, stare at it for 5 minutes while singing Wake Me Up When September Ends, and get ready for a knock-out ala Manny Pacquiao to Erik Morales style.


TWO. Get all the rehydration thingies you can get because you will be needing them. Gatorade has the vitamins and minerals (I think), C2 has Catechins (that are antioxidants and they fight cancer!), and well, there's Extra Joss that sizzles when you pour into the water that gives you energy. If you need hard core rehydration, I advise you use Hydrite.

I dunno why I often witness a bag/pocket slashing event in a jeepney. Maybe it's because I observe too much. Maybe it's because I mind other people's businesses. In short, I'm pakeelamera.

I think it all started when my own pocket was slashed for the very first time. I was in 2nd year college. It was raining hard and it was already late.

Thing with me is that I don't normally ride jeepneys that can only accommodate one or two more passengers because these are seats that only Mahal or Mini Me can fit. My philosophy is, "Why pay for a whole fee when only half of my ass is on the seat and I'm better off hanging by the estribo?"

Anyway, because I had no choice and the rain was pouring down so hard, I was forced to ride this jam packed jeepney. Then I noticed this guy to my right with a big bag moving suspiciously. When I turned right he quickly pulled his arm like he was hiding something.

The guy moved to his right and turned to look at my pocket. I touched my pocket and realized that it had been slashed. The slasher looked at my pocket; maybe he wanted to see how good (or bad) he did with the slashing thingie.

The slasher was not able to get my phone because he didn't make the right incisio--yeah, I know, I'm stupid because I left my phone in my pocke--but he did lacerate my uniform and that rendered it worthless.

Ever since this happened to me, I became more attentive to my co-passengers when in a jeep. I often look around, identify the people with possible slasher looks, and watch his every move. Because of this keen observation, I have seen several pockets being hacked and bags being cut.

The sad part is I can't do anything. I can't shout at the victim and tell him/her that a pickpocket is beside him. I can't shout at the slasher and tell him to back off. It's just so hard to do. So hard and scary.

Last night after my exam in Dear Professor's subject, I decided to ride a jeep from Dapitan to the shuttle station rather than take the usual FX in Espana. The jeep became loaded when we reached Quiapo and there were 3 yuppies who sat beside me.

Suddenly this suspicious looking guy came and sat across me. I say suspicious because he was looking around at people and their belongings. He looked at my bag and I was pretty sure he was thinking if he could easily slash it. Thing is, I was sitting pretty close to the yuppie next to me, so there was no space for the slasher to sit beside me.

Upon reaching Jones' Bridge, I saw the slasher pulled something from his bag. I was afraid that it was a knife, and then he will shout, "Hold up ito!" I was not sure what the thing he pulled was, I even thought it was just a coin, but I'm sure it was something small.

When we reached Lawton, the yuppies beside me got off the jeep and the slasher moved closer to this girl next to him and started slashing her bag! And I saw it happened right in front of my eyes! And for the Nth time I didn't know what to do. =(

I suddenly shouted "Ma! Para po!" when we reached the island before the road goes under Lagusnilad. I transferred to another jeep but I was still looking at the slasher in the other jeep. I saw the girl (victim) noticed her bag was slashed, and then suddenly the jeep was out of sight.

The new jeep where I was in had to wait for passengers before it hits the road. I passed my coins to the driver and as I turned my head, I saw the slasher boarding the jeep where I was in, and I'm pretty sure was unsuccessful with his first victim so he was looking for another one. I quickly moved towards the driver and told him, "Manong, kunin ko ulit yung 7.50" He said, "Bababa ka ba?" Then I replied, "Opo, may nakalimutan ako."

I knew the slasher was looking at me when I got off the jeep. I waited for the jeep to leave, but at the same time I was thinking of what to do in case the slasher gets off again and rides another jeep.

The jeep soon trotted. I boarded a new jeep but I can feel my heart still beating fast. I got home safely and told the story to everyone at home. I even texted some friends and I told them it was really unbelievable.

I'm just so thankful that nothing bad happened to me. I believe it really isn't safe anywhere in Manila and slashers can hit you anytime. I guess we just have to pray hard that the Lord keeps us safe all the time.

And so I would like to thank Kuya Jess. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I truly believe in you. Please keep me, my family, and my friends safe from harm all the time. Thank you from the bottom of my hypothalamus. =)

This week is midterms week so I only have a few moments to spare for me to blog. Not a lot of good things happened for the past days but I know I still have a lot to be thankful for.

I know the coming days will be *worse*. But then there's hope that things will get better.

So to all my friends, please gather up soon. Please be ready when I faint.

(Oh, be ready for the weight that shall lie on your arms, dear friends. =))

I grew up in a board game age. From Game of the Generals to Millionaire's Game to Snakes and Ladders. I have to say my favorite of them all is Monopoly.

Monopoly is like the Pringles of all chips, the Michael Jordan of all basketball players, the 8800 of all Nokia phones, the Ferrari of all cars. Simply put, Monopoly is the board game above all board games.

I used to have an original Monopoly game, the British edition, which I bought in Hong Kong in 1994. And then one day I found out that it was missing from my game board rack. It appears that Mom cleaned up the rack and she was not sure if she kept it--kept it as in hide it that we could no longer find it--or threw it or gave it away.

I found new games to make me forget my lost Monopoly. Peter, Leah, and myself have a new board game craze now. It's called Up-Words. It's like your usual Scrabble but the only difference is that you can sort of change the words by replacing the tiles as long as you keep at least one tile from the original word unchanged.

When Julien came home from the States, she told us she brought this nice board game called Cranium. I've heard of this board game and it costs more than 3000 pesos here in Manila. She said it's like an all-in-one game where there is Pictionary, charades, trivia, etc. It sounds fun to play so I told Julien we should try playing it before she heads back to the States on Monday.

We finally got the chance to play the game last night.


Players should be pairs so I teamed up with Julien and Peter teamed up with Leah.


The game was really cool. It has trivia questions, cameo, word games, sculpture charades, cloodle, and a lot more. It caters to aspiring actors, artists, data hounds, or wordsmiths. I'm not going to explain how it is played because it sounds confusing the way I describe it.

This is Peter and Leah with a Factoid question about some US President (I think).


Peter, isip na isip ka ha.

This is me and Julien with a Word Worm question where we needed to arrange the scrambled letters properly as desrcibed by the given category. The unscrambling part wasn't as easy as Text Twist.


Time was running out, hence my OA reaction.


We lost to Leah and Peter by two blocks. We shall play again tomorrow and hopefully George, Anna, and Raffy can also come over to play with us. We will soon be called Craniacs.

For more info on Cranium, you can visit their site by clicking this.

Ever since I graduated from college I do not anymore get the chance to see the barx much so I decided to call a Barx day last Saturday.

I met Teij, Shi, and Minay at around 6:30 pm in G4 and we have decided to just eat somewhere there instead of having the dinner in Greenbelt as originally planned.

We decided to eat at Friday's even if Shi didn't want to eat there. We soon met Kit, Liz and then Syk came later on. And then we got hold of a cam...

Which means...


And no, we can't be stopped.


Our shooting spree was interrupted when Eds came with an annoyed face with Oyet because she parked her car initially in Greenbelt. When she learned that we have decided to eat at Friday's she had to turn and move into another parking lot.

Somehow Eds can't stop us too, even if she's mad. This time we tagged Syk along while Eds refused and was still cooling off from annoyance.


Good thing Eds didn't take so long to cool down. Then Syk started distributing the photo mosaics she made for us. It's like the one standing along Guadalupe, the one that won the Guiness Record. Anyway, since Shen can't come, I took her photo mosaic so that she was with us at least in...ermmm..spirit.


Then we ate pasta, and onion rings, and chicken fingers, and fries, and shrimps, and squid, and fish, and things happened so fast I didn't even get a chance to take a pic of any of the food before it was gone.

The staff of Friday's went singing a birthday song to a kid sitting right next to our table. You know the feeling when you see a scene like this? You feel like sort of laughing at the person who's celebrating the birthday? And that person looks sort of humiliated because everyone is looking at him/her? I started to feel just that when suddenly Shi bursted out, "Siya din, birthday niya!!!" while pointing at me.

After five minutes, the Friday's staff went running into my direction, like a stampede ready to run fast over me, and started singing this nice birthday song. Then this guy handed me a brownie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and a candle stuck into the ice cream.

I made a simple wish, then blew the candle. The dessert was passed around and before I knew it, it's finished too. Thanks to TGIF for the birthday song, even if it was 18 days in advance. And even if the whole crowd had their eyes on me.

After the dinner we went to Starbucks in 6750 to chat some more. Then we took pics again.


And again.


Then Syk had this game in mind where we will look for the pictures she told us to look for in our own photo mosaics. Since the pics are computer generated, the arrangements are not the same for each mosaic so it was hard to look for a specific photo. It was laugh trip to the max.

The other customers started staring at us and our photo mosaics. The girl behind me said, "Ay ang ganda!" So to cap off their amusement, we found a great substitute for our faces that night, which made everyone (I'm sure) envious. So what if we look funny? So what if we're having fun?

We had so much fun. We called it a night when Oyet had to go home. We parted ways but our friendship is, I'm sure, something that will never part ways. Never.

Ahluvyah mga mars! Sa boitday ko ha!

****

Speaking of the photo mosaic, would like to thank Syk for her Chritmas gift.

For your info, our photo mosaic actually looks something like this upclose (and it's clearer than how it looks here):


The smaller pics that make up the mosaic are our gazillion pics in college that were saved in Syk's fone-slash-Oyet's fone-slash-my cam-slash-Syk's cam. Anyway, from a far my photo mosaic looks something like this:


Thanks, Syk! Love it, Mare!

****

Last Sunday was the opening day of the Philippine Association of Chemistry Students' sportsfest. I played mixed doubles in badminton with Venz.


We won over Adamson, and Venz won in the singles division over another school.


Good job, Mare! Next week ulit ha!