Time Out.

I don’t feel like working. Today, I simply wing it by rationalizing why I dismissed them early—since the kids will not have a free day for two interview requirements due next week, then why not plan what they will do when they are dismissed earlier than usual? Of course, it’s not like they will actually do that (yeah, right) but that somehow gives me insurance that they will get it if they don't come to class prepared next week.

I want to go home and draw. Or even check exams. Anything but be “not working” when I’m suppose to work. Let me clarify that: I’m teaching a laboratory course and part of that includes answering activity manuals. When students do that, I am left with nothing to do. Although I’m reassured by a colleague that that is the way it is, I can’t help sometimes but think that it look like I don’t do anything in class but talk to random colleagues who happen to be there during lab time. If only they know how checking their work is like. -_-

Actually, I wasn’t feeling this bummed out earlier. Sure, I do intend to dismiss them early but I did plan to do something productive which never really came to be. I think it has something to do with the almost smooth-but-not-quite-on-the-way-to-school-driving bit. Not only is All Neu showing signs that indeed something is wrong with the idling servo, but the stupid stick shift decided to go to third gear instead of first just when I was about to accelerate from a halt. That stalled the car for a bit which then somehow foiled my smooth overtaking of an idiot who must’ve thought it’s okay to run really slow on the leftmost lane of the road. Although I am thankful that nothing morbid happened, that definitely affected my mood for the day.

So much for being the noble prof today. *looks at watch* Gah, one more hour until second lab class.

Field Trip from Hell Post Script

I never got to update what controversy occured after the field trip from hell because the week following that, I got sick with the flu and was rendered completely useless for almost a week. It basically f*ckd up my schedule and almost made me incredibly paranoid if I would be well enough to go to Davao for a conference. Thankfully, I was up and about the week after I got sick and tried to make do with the week and a half I have to fix my schedule. I was all completely pissed off because of the precursor of my illness when I found out one of the colleagues who also went to hell got sick and was unable to go to Germany for a workshop. Even if the organizers will pay for his expenses, he had to buy the tickets first and reimburse later; but because he was unable to go and bought the tickets, I don't think he can get a refund. The ticket isn't that cheap either. I still didn't like the experience of getting stuck in some resort that aggravates anxiety and stress instead of reducing it but it's best to move on...and think of a sinister come back later, hehehe. Kidding. It's time for the good stuff.

The FUGly, the Bad and the Good Enough…

Last weekend, I joined the SOCTEC2 field trip to Batangas and Laguna. It’s an overnight thing that turned into…well, at the time, what seemed to be hell on earth (or close to it, maybe especially for the students, who had to shell out an amount they don’t consider as cheap). The problem basically started when we got to the resort we’re supposed to stay for the night—the name of which I didn’t bother to remember (okay, there were the words ‘vista’ and ‘pansol’).

Here are some of the noteworthy things that happened, which hopefully be a source of hard-taught lessons:

Despite the arrival of buses after buses, the kids’ rooms haven’t been assigned yet. The organizers of the trip (let’s call them “LB”) attested that it has been arranged beforehand but due to some students with late payment, the room assignments were not finalized.

The resort ran out of food during dinner time that some students had to wait for the next batch—which was either reordered or bought from a resto outside (I’m not sure…).

We (the older kids who watch over the younger kids) were demoted to a function hall that they made into a sleeping area. By ‘we’, I meant ‘all older kids’--the faculty and discipline officers, regardless of sex. We had to settle sleeping on the floor, with a 2-inch or so mattress and almost poor quality restrooms. It’s a function hall, hence no shower room.

So my colleague Yapatoots and I looked for alternative places to shower and being a resort, we thought there *should* be shower areas beside the swimming pools. It didn't matter if we had to drag our stuff along. In the end, we ended up using the shower room in the quarters of her former students. The female shower areas around the resort DO NOT WORK.

And basically the whole place looked like it is not properly maintained (I wonder who did the ocular inspection, if at all, it was inspected) and the resort people seemed to display a lack of preparation on the whole thing. It also looked like LB had done an unsatisfactory job of coordinating the activity with regards to the lodging. Even if the students claimed that the exposure trips and community visits were not a problem, the discomfort brought by the lodging fiasco basically killed what could have been a more fruitful processing of the exposure trip.

The impact of such field trip horror must’ve subsided, now that I have access to a reasonably clean bathroom. At the time of the trip, I admit I wanted to go home so badly and suppress (with moderate success) the notion that the whole experience was a complete waste of time. Fortunately, there were ways to try and rationalize the misfortunes surrounding the trip. For instance, the night-time karaoke with the other faculty tutors made me realize how much they can loosen up and throw sexual and gay innuendos in the whole conversation. (LOL!) Also, I get to play around with my new digicam and took several pretty pictures

There’s me ^o^…

The sceneries…

And I particularly liked how the presentation of everyday earth-related objects can make nice-looking pictures. ^_^

I think one of the hardest part of the trip is sucking up all the shit that happened, try to stay professional and stick to the objective of the trip, especially since students were all over the place—there’s just no room for overt whining (it's the role-model thing). One thing’s for sure, this whole hoopla isn’t over. I can smell hints of complaints over the next few days.

Raves, Rants and Tennis Tales: Day 33.5

Raves~

I surprised myself just now since I actually completed my preps today (and it’s not yet midnight!). I was able to read the left out text for tomorrow’s lec, do a powerpoint for it and make lab exams. PLUS, I got to watch most of the opening game of the ATP Master’s Series in Shanghai. (Too bad Gasquet and Djokovic lost….but Nadal and Ferrer did deserve to win, I guess :P)

Rants~

No wonder I’ve been feeling crappy lately—thyroid’s acting up again and fatigue is one of the effects. I thought I was just being lazy (well, okay, a bit of that too…). What’s more, I’ve been having palpitations and I get tired easily—this means no tennis! : ( Just when I’m getting the feel of the forehand.

Tennis Tales: Day 33.5~

This month, I’ve only played once and it was crosscourt practice and doing drive (shots?). I’ve practiced a bit of overhead smash and forehand volley but depressingly, my backhand volley felt awkward—as my trainer graciously described it—parang ‘komang’. Still, it was my last 1.5 hours of play before this thyroid condition came up.

Then one time while waiting for some test results, I dropped by the tennis courts to watch and pass time. Fortunately, I saw one of my acquaintances (I finally learned what her name really is) who’s been MIA for three months. I got to chat with her as well as her coach and learned some things about the different grips and how it’s not totally wrong to change grip when doing backhand volley (from a forehand), as well as to where and when it is best to hit the ball in ground strokes. Even if I didn’t play, I’m glad I picked up some tips. It was tempting to borrow a racquet and start playing though. And I was surprised that some of the ball kids already knew me (by name) and asked why I haven’t been playing. ^^; Ehehe…

Losing Steam

Lately, I don't feel like working. As in I feel so lazy to do anything school related that I keep putting them off or making a short cut on how I should actually do them. And it's only midterms! Seven more weeks to go...@__@ Maybe it's because of the upcoming national holidays that kills my work mood. Or maybe I'm just simply too lazy and a procrastinator.

A cRaZy week ends today!!!

For the first time in a long while, I felt like I was working in an office and not in a school. Laid back was not the best description for this week—instead, it’s fast-paced and things had to be done one after the other. I tried hard not to think that in the remaining ten hours of my time, I wasn’t really getting paid to get the work done. Ah, woes of a part-timer >__<.

Today was a rather interesting one. I was supposed to play again this morning but the trainer didn’t show up! GOOD THING I had to do something early in school anyway (out of sheer stupidity from the day before) so I thought, some laps around City Hall would compensate as a workout. I finished about an hour of walking/running and as I waited for my dad to finish his laps, I went back inside the court to watch. After talking a bit with this girl that I’ve seen a couple of times, a regular senior player approached us and asked if we wanted to use the court. The girl who I was talking to said her instructor was not there yet so the senior (let’s call him Sir Joe) asked me. I told him about my trainer but for some reason he still insisted, saying that once the people start coming in, I might not be able to play. Anyway, I didn’t think he’d take no for an answer and really felt that my time coming in early shouldn’t be wasted so he volunteered to be my hitting partner.

So much for my plan to be in school at 830am. LOL!

Actually, instead of him, the brother of my trainer played with me. He just happened to play but not really work there. I spent 30 minutes hitting before my superego got the best of me. Besides, I can’t hog the court for so long when sir Joe still hasn’t played. After the game, he seemed pleased that the purpose of my going to a tennis court has been accomplished ^^; The moment I got home, I rushed and prepared for school.

Let’s sidetrack a bit as to why I HAD to get to school early. It’s because I had to check an exam I promised to be returned today…something I was supposed to do yesterday but was unable to do so because even if I was prepared yesterday, I realized that the exams were in my locker and I forgot to bring my keys.

“D’oh!!!” (Simpson, 2007)

But I thought, I can check them early in the morning today…only to realize that the locker is in the lab, which opens at 10am to which I no longer have keys to and my class is at 1030am.

“D’oh!!!” (Simpson, 2007)

So I had to make arrangements to meet a colleague with a key. It all worked out in the end anyway. Even if I’m already thinking of another way to meet him since I wouldn’t make it on our earlier agreement of 830am, he informed me that he’d be late. So there were no problems there. Yay. I made it on time with the exams and proved that I can check and record papers in one hour and it shouldn’t take me three hours when I’m doing it at home.

Pressure apparently makes me work better. ^o^

A Series of Uncanny Events (which were close to almost unfortunate ones)

So my title is unoriginal. Tsch.

Today—well, actually yesterday (since it’s past midnight) was rather weird. I started the day with ample time to go to school when…

… on my way, I had to change lanes and my right side mirror hit something (I hope it’s a thing…) and it folded inward. There was no damage though.
…trying to concentrate some more, onwards Quirino Ave., just when I was positioned on the appropriate lane, I noticed a build-up, then someone signaling us to go to the right when I saw there’s something going on between two cars…that caused traffic and I was so near my destination
…I kept my cool since I still have time—until I reached the parking lot and for the first time, ran out of space! Had to wait 10 minutes in case someone leaves but no one did. A guard approached me and handed me a ticket so I can park on the other floors. I still don’t know if I have to pay for it though.
…that made me late for class since even if I was technically on time, I had to pass by the library to get my multimedia kits then set it up in class
…then in the middle of class, inconsiderate listeners who thought they were silently sighing and cussing (?) at the complexities of some terminologies got the best of me and I gave in into reciting a different kind of lecture
…after that, elevator woes made me late on my next class
…which went well but could’ve been better had I was able to come on time
…by lunch, I made the mistake of ordering a soup that costs 52 bucks! and it was on a small bowl! Which made my lunch bill almost reach 200 bucks!
…after which I started preparing for grad class when my powerpoint handout didn’t print as it should, hence, delaying my note taking
…and I have other things planned in the afternoon, hence, delaying that too
…went to the library again to have a head start in preparing my multimedia kit for grad only to be foiled with a defective extension cord that I had to take an extra trip to the lab to get my extension cord
…and I ate late dinner, just when I told myself I shouldn’t anymore since I had much food intake already today

On my way home, I stayed behind a huge truck.
And it rained.
It was rather relaxing.

I’m not much of a person who blames external things but today was just a bit hard to ignore ^^. So much for an update.

To the Twilight Zone and Back

Have you ever had the experience of looking for something when you know exactly where you left it but it’s not there? Like you were really, really, REALLY sure you left it there (especially since you just touched it three minutes ago) and then it’s gone?

That happened to me last night and I was close to thinking that something was playing tricks on me. Of course, the rationale side of me persisted that I stayed up until 3AM looking for the lost item.

The lost item was my eye medicine, Tobradex—a rather expensive one like all other eye meds. I usually place it along with the old depleting cotton buds container inside my closet. Before I use it, I have to have a lid scrub using baby shampoo so I picked the eye med from the container, set it aside in the pile of clothing beside the container and brought the container to the sink for the lid scrub. I opened up a new container of cotton buds and after that, I went back to my closet, sifted through the pile of clothes and looked for the eye med. Just as I was about to put it, I noticed it felt different. I checked the label and it was a DIFFERENT eye med!!! (Yes, I have many eye meds lately…)

I sifted again. There was no other eye med there. I was like…WTF??? I kept checking the name of the other eye med—it was not Tobradex. Then I thought…was I using the wrong med this whole friggin’ week?!?!?! But no, I tested the consistency and what I put in my eye the night before had a different consistency with the current eye med I found. I even went as far as turning my closet upside down—TWICE— (the second one was when I decided I cannot sleep until I find that eye med which has no logical reason why it should disappear just like that) to no avail. And yes, I came close to thinking that perhaps, something supernaturally funny was going on. Finally, I gave up. There was a stray cotton ball on my floor from all that clothes turning and throwing so I went to the trash can to throw the cotton ball.

Then I decided to check the trashcan. The Tobradex was there.

Again, I was like, WTF?! How the hell did that get in there? I still can’t remember until now but maybe it was when I opened the new container of cotton buds and threw away the plastic seal around it. But I still don’t remember getting the Tobradex med so how did it end up in the trash?

Oh, and it didn’t help that before I went to bed, I drank a small bottle of vodka mudshake. I mean, COME ON—I didn’t get drunk on such minimal alcoholic content!

Seriously, I wasn’t drunk. Dimmit. >.<

Moody + Tired

Today is the last regular class day of the term. After today, I’ve never felt so exhausted—which I couldn’t really explain why. I mean, I had more ‘active’ days (all I did today was to talk with my lab group presentations for two hours—sitting down), like going to school for the whole day, then playing tennis afterwards, then staying up really late.

I guess it’s the summation of all these things:

- The mental exhaustion of paneling
- The emotional exhaustion of making group compromises regarding work effort
- Running late for reasons beyond my control
- Raining at the wrong time and getting stranded when my ride is just a freaking block away (seriously, the school should make a roofed(?) walkway to the Sports Complex)
- My charm and alien powers not working with the guards who won’t lend me an umbrella just so I can go to the other building and return it there. I ended up going back to the lab to borrow an umbrella. When I got back outside, the rain outside got a little less than I can actually make a run for it without the umbrella
- Unable to accompany Quiaps who paneled with me to snack because I’m running late, which made me feel…um, “un-right”, since it looked like a Panel and Run kind of thing.
- Almost a road woe on the way home—always look at the bloody right side mirror, dammit!
- Didn’t get to do the x-ray as planned because of the holiday, I won’t get the results until Saturday—which I think would be the same thing if I get the x-ray on Saturday morning and maybe get the results in the afternoon.

At that point, I was tired when I got home. There was NO traffic, by the way—no road idiots either (this time, the idiot was me, actually). I was supposed to go to GH after school but I decided not to. Unfortunately, my mom thought otherwise that she made this itinerary on going to the bank so I can sign some docs, then to Megamall for bill payments, then to GH. I groggily tried to go along but after mom paid the bills, she finally noticed how messed up I was and we decided to detour back home. But not after we dropped by some establishments inside the mall that added to my list of moody factors above, specifically:

- Inefficient account executives who tell you to call back today only to find out that today is her f*kcng day off! To make things more irritating, two months is not enough for her to process the “un-freezing” of my account?! B.S! Account executives like her, who only become oh-so-accommodating when your contract is about to expire and religiously texting you of promos just so they can get their commission, should be…I don’t know, exiled from this planet or something. Really, I try to understand that it’s their job and all—but someone should add “continued accommodation during existing contract” in their job descriptions. As we walked away, I kept saying to myself, “Calm down, calm down! If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”
- Just when I needed a convenient Internet Card kiosk, I don’t see one that I had to go to the fourth floor to buy one.
- The eye medicine I need is out of stock on two Mercury Drugstores we went to, where the location cost me the commute via FX and had to do a long walk. Normally, I wouldn’t mind the long walk but I was unusually tired, remember?

After all those things, I napped the moment I got home. Like K.O’d nap. This is such a weird day.

[Me want Djokovic-Canas Sony Ericsson Final Match replay!!! ]

Blackout

My side of the world experienced a massive power outage due to the typhoon "Milenyo". The crappy part about it was that the power outage lasted for nine f*%&#$@ days in our END of the street!!! And no, I don't blame the typhoon but mortal weaknesses (like inefficiency or incompetence, maybe) of those who are supposed to keep things in check.

There were some things I learned during the brief exposure to this 'contemporary dark age':

1. No electricity doesn't mean productivity will be hindered. On the contrary, it can progress, especially since there are no distractions like cable TV and the Internet.

2. I love my Creative MuVo!!! It has kept me sane with its FM radio feature and whatever mp3s I had it in.

3. Back up computer files are not only useful when the computer breaks down.

4. Sometimes you need to take matters in your own hands.

5. Morning heat wakes me up early.

6. I still like rain despite the devastation it can cause when it chooses to. For some reason, it rained every night during the span of the black out, making it more bearable. On the day that we got our electricity back, it didn't rain anymore.

7. Not even a blackout can stop me from dropping by a custom car show event.

8. I really, really, really, REALLY like dogs.