Palo!!!
W just started playing tennis again this week. My classmate from SURP invited me to play at the U.P. Tennis Club. So we played early Monday morning, while there are still not that many people at the club. Too bad it rained the night before, so the courts were all wet, so we couldn't run after the balls.
Although the wet court prevents us from rallying longer when the balls stray from our immediate reach, I am glad my forehand is still ok. But my backhand sucks bigtime!!! At first we rallied at the half of the court, then we later on proceeded to rally at the farther end of the court. The strength of our strokes are still ok, and the height of the balls trajectory is satisfactory. Even our services are still acceptable.
Although my hand aches the following day, I am still glad that we got the chance to revive an old interest. And joining the tennis club further delays my thinking of leaving the university. It's one feature of the UP Community that I would indeed love to indulge on.
Tennis anyone?
Missions
For the last half of 2006, I have listed a few goals, which I am gonna coin as my "missions" (although a mission is different from a goal, in planning speak) for 2006:
1. Maximize library priviledges, bookstores and other literature sources within the campus.
2. Join seminars.
3. Join an organization.
4. Learn a new skill or revive old interests.
5. Organize and backup.
These are my boring, academic missions for the latter part of the year:
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Being two sems shy of losing my library priviledge, I realized that there are still tons of treasures to be found within the Architecture and SURP libraries. I remember back then when I was still with the Arts and Letters I would gaze at the rows upon rows of books at the CAL and GenRef sections of the Main Library. I have always loved borrowing, and of course reading books. But upon entering Architecture this drive slowed down, now I have to catch up again.
I bought some new planning books, particularly on administrative planning, transportation planning and one on green architecture cum planning cum environmentalism. And aside from that, I got new acquisitions on geographic information systems (with compact discs!!!), as well as tons of magazines. Also got some books on anthropology, participative planning, and other planning related books. Now I'm off to the Architecture library!
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Joining seminars has been one of my frustrations, simply because I fail to avail of seminars within the campus. I do attend symposiums provided by SURP, and I list down potential symposiums I really like. But in the end I fail to attend them.
Recently we signed up for a product demo on Autocad 2007 and Revit at the Shangrila Hotel in Makati. It's not a seminar per se, but at least we started being aware and really attended a short presentation on software. And of course its lakwatsa time for us non-Makati people.
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Being previously down on social life, I signed up for a professional organization which focuses on geographic information systems. An old land use planning classmate saw me at the Balay Kalinaw and led me to a seminar being handled by the org. Being mostly composed of academics and geographers, I am excited on the idea of an Architect/Urban Planner joining such a group. Let's see where the org takes me. Of course the prospect of getting contacts, networks and clients is still there, and of course improving my social life.
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I saw an ad at the Shopping Center on guitar tutorials. I called up the number found at the ad, and was pleasantly surprised to know that the group offering the tutorials is a group composed of Architects and Engineers. I was surprised some more to know that some of these professionals teach at my old board review school. They also teach architectural presentation and graphics programs, as well as maintain a fully functioning A&E office. Now I am excited to sign up, since the prospect of not just learning advanced guitar, but also expanding my network is also available.
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And of course, being a list person, I am still continuing on back ups and organizing my files, may it be hard or soft copies/files.
Now lets see how far I can go on with these missions. Busy-busyhan mode, on! Now I have to ponder on the more exciting part of my life, with the new apartment now available.
No Fear, No Guilt
Up until last night, I have never laid my hands on an arcade game, or never had I tried those large arcade machines with racing games complete with pedals and steering wheel. Back then during elementary and highschool, I never had the drive nor the urge to squeeze in the crowd to try my luck at those arcade games while a crowd looks on. In Parañaque and Las Piñas, being a small municipality back then (well my world was smaller back then), arcades and gaming centers are almost non-existent, except for the fledgling Alabang Town Center back then and the less classy commercial centers along Zapote Road in Las Piñas. There was no SM back then. The rad games back then was Street Fighter, with all the "cool" boys playing and hoarding the console, so there was no chance of me getting my hands on them, thus my childhood deprivation. We were content on playing at the smaller (and quieter) Family Computer gaming areas, which are small nooks found at video stores.
Having a lot of time to kill and a few free games coupons, I bravely entered Timezone in Megamall. Having eyed the racing games for so long, I gamely hopped on and tried it. After wrecking my car in the first game, I finally got the hang of it, and I was hooked on the game! No guilt on going over the curb or scraping the sides of my car on the tunnels, I concluded that the game is my prelude to actual driving. For those who do not know, I am an adult who still does not know how to drive!!! Blame it on poverty and slow professional growth for not having the opportunity to finally acquire a vehicle, but this handicap is for another story. At least I finally started on a new addiction, even if its only on the virtual aspect of driving. Now I know the feeling (well, partly) of driving the pedal to the metal, and steering and using the manual transmission.
Now I can't wait for my next race!
Vulcans
I learned a new word recently...(definitions are all mine, apologies to the creators of Star Trek)
Vulcan (Vool-cahn, noun) - a being who possesses a level of seriousness that goes beyond normal. Lacks a level of sense of humor that greatly affects the mood of people within or around the immediate vicinity. Usually poker faced, does not crack a smile easily. As popularized by the science fiction television/movie series Star Trek, in the persona of Spock, an alien crew member on board the USS Enterprise some time in the distant future.
Spock: "We Vulcans do not show any emotions... I do not understand the logic of your statement. Please expount further, as we Vulcans have no notion of humor, or do we share any sense of humor."
Trip lang po!!!
Trio
We are the trio that had one last time to be together again.
We recently had a get-together/welcoming party/send off/despedida for Ferds, Noel and Lex. Noel and Ferds are my thesis groupmates. Ferds has been living and working in Dubai for around two years, and spent a few weeks back in Asia and the Philippines. Noel has just acquired his visa to live and work in Dubai. Lex got a job in Boracay.
We decided to go beyond the usual restaurant get together and spend the evening at a hotel suite in Ortigas. Kudos go out to the organizing committee, it was a nice experience being stressed out during the preparation stage (more on that later...). It was expected that we spend the night drinking, singing via the magic sing, and laughing our hearts out one last time. But not much of these happened. Well maybe it was knowing later on that the bonding sessions that should have happened to reinforce our closeness was not needed, that all the craziness of being a trio and generally as a group was still there and will never fade.
Before the party, Ferds spent the evening with us for our weekly dine-out at Philcoa. We later went out and painted the town red so to speak. The night (or morning) was later spent talking at the rent before sleeping.
And after the party, we had to send-off Ferds again, as he was to meet up with his family before heading off home to Bicol. Noel and I accompanied him out of the hotel towards their family vehicle. It was nice to meet his family again, familiar faces that I haven't seen in such a long time, since our Mascardo Refugees/thesis days. I later learned that even Ferds' brother is heading off to Dubai, who jokingly asked me why I decided to again stay behind. After that, the trio was again separated.
A few days later Noel was off to Dubai. We sped off to the airport to see him one last time. It was like a scene from an old Tagalog movie where we had to go beyond security personel just to see him off the departure area.
After Ferds' trip to his hometown, we met up again for dinner and overnight at our new house. We spent the night laughing at private jokes, especially about Spock and the Vulcans. I also pestered Ferds with questions regarding the life in Dubai. And later on we spent the morning looking at his new cd acquisitions of installers, scandals and other goodies. After coffee and bread at Mini-Stop we again parted ways.
It's nice to think of me as an anchor in the PI for those people who flew away to greener pasteurs. Although taking my sweet time in looking for my own bread and butter, it is nice to know that people still get to visit us once in a while, looking back at people and places we used to have. After thesis, we only meet up once in a while. Ferds and Noel became officemates at Mañosa. Noel and I became housemates at our own version of Big Brother house. Now Noel and Ferds are in Dubai. The last gimmick was our chance to be together one last time. But maybe later the trio will be together again. And our own version of kakulitan may once again live up to its former glory.
