And after a long leave of absence …

… I’m back (after several weeks), and tonight I can write at least some lines about what happened while I was away.

For one, last start of June, I found out my section. III-K. Potassium. Element 19 of the periodic table, as you might come to learn in the major subject for third year, Chemistry 2.

A lot of controversy surrounds the name of our section. For one, if you pronounce or spell “pota”, it’s not very far from a certain Filipino swear word. Stuff like that.

Once I knew who I was paired up with in Potassium, I thought I could settle down. Though, of course, I should have known earlier: this is Pisay. That pretty much says it all.

But as hectic as another year in this science school can become, some of the nicer things in life also happen in III-K.

For one, I have some nice classmates. Some are likeable, some are very (and I mean uproariously) funny, and some are easy enough to talk to.

Even better, as there are some really great creative projects. Such as the Ramayana. I consider myself extremely fortunate to get into one of four third-year sections where our job is to modernize the Indian epic tale and adapt it as according to our need. Plus, I can already imagine the posters.

Be back after some more weeks of blog leave, maybe.

internet, internet, internet.

First it was Y!M. Then, blogs. Then YouTube. And now Multiply.

What new account will I have to make next?

You people. Always doing internet stuff.

Don’t you guys ever get a rest?

Movie Marathon!!! :D

Movie marathon n. One of the countless ways one can spend summer vacation, involving (almost) countless different movies of different kinds, which one may watch one after the other, either on DVD or, if one has enough money, in the Mall of Asia’s IMAX.

Among the other things I did this long summer (gracious gift of global warming) was to watch some big-name flicks, some not so big-name flicks, and some flicks with names that would scare the pants off the MTRCB but shouldn’t be doing so.

The IMAX is big. Really big. Too big for comfort. Well, it’s good enough, though the screen is rather too close to your face that you can’t see the whole screen at once. Which is kind of a letdown if you’re watching Spider-Man 3.

Yes, I’ve watched it. Perhaps you already know the story enough not to be afraid of spoilers. Ask me how many villains there are; I’d say, don’t know how many there should be, but here are some:

 - VENOM!!! Bwahahahahaha!!! (shows evil toothy grin)

 - And the Sandman! (I just loved it when Spidey got sand in his suit )

 - And … that new Goblin guy, whom I kind of wish hadn’t died so soon. He could make a great villain in Spidey 4. Problem was, the movie was becoming so long with three bad guys on the loose that the makers decided to lop them back to two. At least Harry dies a good guy and a friend to Peter/Spidey.

Is the alien ooze thingy another bad guy? Or only when it formed Venom (with the jealous rival photographer guy)? Don’t know. Maybe. Usually we think aliens are bad guys. Then again, maybe it’s just another lonely misunderstood little alien critter. Hehe.

(And did I mention I loved it when Spidey got sand in his suit? P.S. Spoilers end here.)

Anyway. Now to get to the other movies.

I saw a bit of The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D. But not in 3-D. Because I didn’t have the 3-D glasses. And because it was airing on TV and not in a 3-D movie theater. But in any case it’s not bad. At least the dream landscapes there are out of this world. It said somewhere that there was supposed to be a kissing scene in the film. Stupid. The characters are just kids! Nothing but an on-the-cheek thing, of course.

And I saw part of King Kong. If this film’s a colossal hit, thank the graphics. But then graphics are what make colossal hits out of Spidey 1, 2, and 3, Pirates 1, 2, and 3, and Shrek 1, 2, and 3, not to mention the other big-time visual feasts like the X-men and the Fantastic Four and of course the fully-animated movies.

There’s more.

It was a rainy afternoon, the kind of gloomy rainy day which completely blots out the sun and rains down in gentle showers. The kind that inspires lovelorn poets and the like. That kind of day.

(Get to the f__ing point, will you?!)

(Sorry. )

So anyway, it was that kind of a gloomy rainy day, and I, trapped at home without nearby cousins to visit, decided to watch something.

That something was a movie that the MTRCB would kill you for watching. Either because (a) they’re devoutly Catholic or (b) they didn’t read the book.

That something was, yes, you guessed it: (ominous church music) The Da Vinci Code.

I watched it. And didn’t go strapping on a spiky belt thingy and whipping my back and assassinating people from secret members of some deep dark secret society, which I think doesn’t really exist.

Honestly, I don’t see what’s so dangerous about an imaginative fictional story that has real places in it. If people would only accept that the story doesn’t have to be true, then the danger disappears, and this controversial flick becomes merely another fictional film that’s safe enough to watch if you don’t start believing in it. No different from action films with guns and car chases: if you know they’re not real, then you can watch all you want. Of course, it’s bad news if you start believing in the Code’s conspiracy theories, which aren’t even original, by the way. The simple rule is this: Don’t get hypnotized by such movies.

Not some over-the-edge rule that bans people below 18. But hey, conservatives will be conservatives.

As for me, I think the music and the camera angles could have been better. None of those dark cons of man or Church secrets bothers me.

Enjoy your last days! I invite you to watch Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, or Shrek the Third. Watch either (or both, if you have enough money–and sorry about the Spider-Man 3 spoilers!) before school starts eating up your time!

Summer! (a gift and a curse)

What I mean is that:

Summer is good, in the sense that you can go on a vacation and see the sights and play Ran – or Flyff, another hot new online game – or go swimming or do other stuff you have decided to do, stuff that you like.

But summer can be sort-of bad too, because of summer review classes and other workshops.

Summer, I think, should be a time to relax and not to spend so much time on academic things as much as during the school year.

But sometimes there’s just no other way. Precisely because a whole school year in Pisay, wherein you get scared at the mention of quadratic equations, acceleration and velocity, and countless scientific names, just isn’t enough.

Especially when Algeb is in the 2.0-2.25-2.5 area, and Physics has gone downhill from 1.0 in the second and third quarters to 1.5 in the fourth. When something like this happens, then it means that something must be seriously wrong with the Pisay scholar involved.

The solution is summer review classes. Of course it’s not so bad when you’re lumped with thirty or so other batchmates from Pisay batch 2009,  but when you’re whisked off to a more obscure review center, one with supposed cultists and eerie yellow lights inside its rooms, and far less Pisay batchmates along with you for the ride … well, let’s just say you’d be a bit unnerved.

Even more when this new review center teaches not only the difficult-enough maths but also the major Sciences. Which are not gonna be much easier than Algebra and Trigonometry this coming third year.

I don’t know. Not that you should be against review classes – after all, they prepare you for a third year that would have been even more hellish without them – but the problem usually has to do with the fun summer time, which is consequently drastically reduced when you go off to a review class.

However, it is a choice. It’s either play Flyff for hours on end, and fail third year Chem - or review stoichiometry and reduction and oxidation reactions this summer, so that there’s time to play Flyff during the coming school year (not that you should for hours on end, and not that Flyff will still be a hot new online game by school year 2007-2008).

Which path you decide to take is now all up to you. Only time will tell what might happen in the future, but we can make a fair guess. After all, too much of something is never good, especially too much online gaming or Internet- or computer- related stuff.

With that, good luck and enjoy your summer!

Coming Soon (possibly): hAx novel idea

You saw it on YouTube …

now see it on paper.

HORIZONTAL AXIS
A Novel.

(Possibly.) Don’t get your hopes up, but keep your fingers crossed.

:DSL!!!

After the previous post, I suddenly remembered that we had just acquired DSL.

We have just received a newsflash–and how fast!

Mike finally has DSL!!!

It was less than a week ago when the hailed accelerator of Internet speed (also known as broadband) arrived, although as yet without a wireless router, which, though delayed, promised to follow soon.

In a (Word)press statement following the arrival of DSL service, Mike expressed inward gratitude for this device which would provide great benefits regarding Internet access, where once there was only a dial-up connection.

Players of Ran and other online games expected that the new connection would enable Mike to play–well, Ran or other online games. Mike declined as he does not play much.

But after all this, he is still thankful for the existence of DSL.

I don’t know what to write any more …

Not that I ever really knew what to write in the first place.

Shall we go on?

I don’t really know.

Aside from the fact that those guys in my brain are still arguing, well …

Reason is slipping away, with not much academic blah blah to focus on.

Pissimista can still rage about a lot of things. But these days outside stuff seems neither so good nor so bad, so in the end, all I have in my mind is a tense, strained, short-lived moment of mental and emotional peace.

Senti_Mike, the lover in us all, is kept alive only by pictures. Every relationship he ever had–if you can call it a relationship–was, and still is, one-way.

Optimista is still hopeful. In the midst of global warming ergo intense summer heat, he’s still hopeful. After all, we still have a sun!

Yet between us all the memories we have had are fading away, just like photographs that have not been scanned, uploaded, and saved in a computer so that they remain there indefinitely, and if placed on the Internet, forever.

Shall we go on?

Someday, I will get off this desert island …

Someday, you will come to resurrect the golden memories …

We just have to wait.

A Personal Introduction

I don’t suppose that readers of this relatively new blog (if there are any readers) are going to recognize who posts on it.

So here is the introduction.

This blog is run by a guy named Mike.

But if you’re thinking just one guy with one mind writing only what comes from that one mind, think again.

There are a number of little guys inside Mike’s brain who argue over what he should be writing. They are like split personalities or alter egos who stand for different facets in Mike’s everyday life and profile. (Bipolar mercuriate will help expose these little guys’ profiles.)

Speaking of profiles, here is another introduction, this time to some of the guys. They do not really have formal names:

Reason is that guy who looks rationally at things. Uses school smarts to solve problems.
The Board of Emotion is a board of little guys who dictate Mike’s current emotions. Responsible for mood swings:
Optimista. Looks toward the future, at blue skies, and is generally–happy.
Pissimista. All gray skies and rain for this one. Heartbreaks, oppressive summer heat, etc. all get this guy down.
Komedyante. :p Funnyman who can relate with people better than most of the other guys in Mike’s brain.
Senti_Mike. (insert heart shape) If love comes to Mike, then it comes mostly to Senti_Mike. So far he’s been out of luck.
Venge. (insert horned head shape) Plans crazy schemes and sometimes wants to get his revenge. Often hotheaded or sulking.

Between lonely Reason and the split personalities of the Board of Emotion, they then control Mike’s hands and mouth so that he then says something dumb, insulting, nonsensical, or otherwise undesirable, and posts it online for all critics to see. (Forgive Pissimista for adding that. Peace.)

Perhaps this way, future readers will understand why, then, will Mike be making slips or mood swings in his blog posts. :p

Non-Stop Summer Heat!

Do I have to mention how boiling or steaming or volcanic hot the Summer of ‘07 is?

I’m sure I don’t. Anyone is bound to feel it. Which makes it such a hot topic (no pun intended) these days. Especially as a lot of us know it’s all part of … (ominous music) global warming.

Too hot to continue typing. Be back in a while, perhaps when the next Ice Age kicks in.

Coffee House!!! how I miss it … :D (intro)

I don’t have much time tonight to talk about how much I miss the sweet Coffee Houses so characteristic of Pisay’s caf during SY 2006-2007, but what I will say for now as an introduction is this:

Irish Cream, and Cappuccino (esp. Irish Cream … no hard feelings, Cappuccino …), you will both be sorely missed. We, the patrons of your sweet and mellowing, but also slightly energizing–after all, you both have caffeine–we hope to taste you both next year. God (and Allah, and Confucius, and Buddha, and Bathala, and Brahman, and Zoroaster, and the 8 million or so gods of Shinto) rest your … well, souls.