bon voyage atchie...

waking up, i was greeted with a sad news. my cousin is migrating to singapore. for good. and she's leaving tomorrow. we've known about this since last year, yet somehow, the impact of actually knowing that she'll be gone is still hard to swallow.

growing up, my cousins and i have always been close. we used to meet every sunday at my grandma's house in laguna. we all used to play the same things, do the same stuff, and get away with the same mischief. and now, one of us is leaving the philippines for good. first, she got married last december, now, she's actually physically leaving her family. it's a bitter-sweet feeling that affects everyone. on the one hand, she's going to have a good life in singapore, her friends are already there, and her line of work awaits her there. but on the  other hand, close as our family is, it's kinda hard letting go. i mean, now that we're adults, we don't really get to see each other on a regular basis, but we all rest assured on the fact that each of us is just a few km drive away. now, there'll be miles before we can see her again. sad.

oh well, as i've always said, it's life. we never know when we're gonna make a 90 degree turn. we never know when we'll have to switch lanes. all we have is the fact that we drive our own lives and we have control of how we are to proceed therefrom. we never know the destination, all we have is the journey. so we might as well make the most out of it.

goodbye atchie, and may you have a wonderful life ahead of you. we'll miss you.

weekend

puerto galera was great, and so was the company. it was short and quick, but it was all worth it. i love it...

weekend getaway

i can't wait for the weekend to come rolling by. i'd be going to puerto galera to celebrate whatever it is that needs celebrating this season. i'm sure it'd be a blast. it's a weekend getaway that i so need before i get back on my feet and start studying for the final exams next month. time is short before the bar takes hold of everything i'd do, might as well make the most out of it while i still can.

i'm saying goodbye to the last remnants of an old life. a new one fast approaches, and nothing short of full concentration is needed for me to ride that thunder and grasp that dream of mine. and the good thing is, i'm up for it.

so, bring it on.

vista

amazing. interface that's easy with the eye. cool media center. akin to the mac. nice... the downside though is, i have to re-install all the programs that i uninstalled to install the vista, a lot of work for sure, a lot of work...

having a break

cut all my classes today. watched a movie. bought some stuff.

after two weeks of mind-numbing intellectual activity, i.e. the midterms, i so definitely needed the break. some alone time made me relax. and on the weekend, i'm heading back home to san pablo. now that would be rest.

so looking forward to it (aside from tomorrow that is, hehe). ;p

midterms still

well then, off to the library again... hehe... ;p

pawn phone phony

oh yes, i have moved my first pawn. now, it's the professor's turn to move his. with my first midterm exam done and over with, the fact that i f*cked up keeps recurring to me as a horrible nightmare. this is one of those times when i want to jump off a cliff somewhere, aaaaah! why have i ever submitted myself to these kinds of torture? and in four years at that! why oh why...

and as if i hadn't have much to worry about, ker bought himself a new phone unit, to which i'm soooo envious. the camera is of the most advanced in the market today, the design is fantastic, and the memory is expandable. all these features are way better than my one year old phone. hence, the envy. i so want a new phone right now! waaaaa!

this then, brings me to my last point. with all that's going on around me, i kinda hope, rather desperately, that no one around me is a phony. i desperately want to believe everything that has been said. and i hope i can do the same.

so i can shed my skin and move forward. to the future.

my future.

coolness

i have just re-discovered how cool multiply is.

specifically, i liked how it cross-posts my messages from blogger to multiply, or from mulitply to blogger. You see, i've always been reluctant in taking up new blog addresses for fear that my loyal readers (ehem, you're there, right? hehe) won't be able to find me. but lately, with the lack of good editing features of blogger, i've been having a hard time posting.

for one, all that blogger has in its editing toolbox is the bold and italics function (which is funny because there was more before when i was still using the old blogger). now that i'm using multiply, i can pretty much do anything i want, including the fact that i can justify my entries (no more unaligned texts, yehey)!!! for another, blogger has only just that, blogging. Lately, i've been having pretty cool pics and it's too much of a hassle to upload each one in my blog for it takes ten years to complete an upload. not so with multiply. this is so much cooler (not to mention faster, but you all know about that, right?).

of course, this is aside from the fact that i can restrict who, among my contacts, can view and read a particular entry. how cool is that! multiply has really become coolness in every sense of the word!

and with midterms coming up, i so appreciate it. cool, huh? ;p

(btw, i'm at http://jeland.multiply.com Visit me sometimes...)

and the countdown begins

twenty seven hours to go before the exam. a million readings still yet to be read. one single cry. WAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

diminishing returns

no matter how hard i refuse to accept it, it's true. there is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns, especially when it comes to studying for my forthcoming midterm exams. the first two hours are nothing short of a breeze as i just become a sponge absorbing each and every info that my eyes permit me to read. but after that, well, it becomes another story. it becomes more and more difficult to assimilate the relevant data, let alone the trivial matters that are handy to know but are never really necessary for purposes of the exam (yes, i'm referring to the nice-sounding latin terms and phrases, hehe...).

and so, after a few hours of forced brain labor, i must inevitably stop, for no time by then is efficiently spent. thus, i turn to other more productive things to do, i.e. blogging and something else. haha, what a way to spend the last few remaining hours of the penultimate day before balane's killer succession exam. hahaha.

good thing i have these outlets* lest i lose everything to the law of diminishing returns... and no one would like that, right?

*wink wink* for those who know, or at least have an idea, best stay shut, hehe

little fights

don't you ever wonder when these disagreements stop?

for one, it gets so annoying sometimes fighting about nothing at all. it's as if a mushroom just sprung out of nowhere and you are forced to deal with it even if you have neither the patience nor the time.

for another, they are just that, little inconsequential fights--fights of no import whatsoever. all it does is raise your temper, nothing more.

so again, i ask, when do these disagreements stop? never seems to be a plausible answer.

but i would prefer soon.

anytime soon.

midterms (for the last time)

here i am, less than a week before my midterm exams and i am still yet to feel the rush which usually compels me to study religiously. i need to panic. i need to feel the urgency of reading and re-reading all of my materials. i need to see the lack of time to cover all of my readings in order to, ironically, finish them all!!! argh, i need help!!!

back and beyond

i had fun last friday. despite the gnawing rumbling of the impending midterm examinations, i was able to take a break, relax a little, and enjoy good food and music in one bar in makati. to top it off, i was in good company--new, but good. i think such company is well on its way in becoming a great one. what a fantastic way to jump start the new year.

and speaking of the new year, i am on the verge of embarking on a new journey myself. that is, after i hurdle my last midterm and final examinations in the law school! tingnan mo nga naman, ang bilis ng panahon. it seems not so long ago when i have been complaining about my first couple of midterm exams. now, i'm about to finish it all. cool, but still, scary. this means of course that the bar is just a stone throw away. less than ten months of revisiting and remembering all that i've learned in the law school. whew. it is, by far, the most daring feat that i am to breast in my academic life. it is the pinnacle, if you must, of those long years of preparation. argh. needless to say, i will need all the support that i can get.

i'm sure my family will be there, but i will have to ask pardon, as early as now, for i will be conspicuously absent in any and all of our family gatherings until after the bar. the same goes with my friends. except for those who i'll be occasionally seeing while reviewing in the law school, i think i will disappear even more than i already had these past four years. argh, the pains of striving in life.

but then again, i'm getting well ahead of myself. i need to focus on my last midterms first, don't i? one step at a time, i suppose. i'll get there soon enough. but for now, i gotta write my elements notebook. later guys, au revoir.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!