Ready to start.

By now, I would probably have 11 more days to cherish being a bum. The long wait (and agony) of searching for a suitable job has come to a conclusion, as I have finally found something to make me less bored (and for me to at least earn some money too). Yes, I got myself not one, but two jobs. One is a full-time job, the other a part-time job.

My full-time job would involve dealing with raw video footages at ABS-CBN, classifying and labeling them accordingly (or that's how the recruitment people described it to me). Despite the not-so-impressive salary, I decided to take the job for a variety of reasons: one is because I really need to start somewhere if I want to develop a career as a writer-cum-aspiring-journalist, even if the job is not that high-paying (as you would compare for, let's say, working in a BPO or IT industry). Second, since I've interned in ABS-CBN before, I have thought that maybe this is a good opportunity to start off my working life, since I sort of know how is it to be working in that company (and yes, that includes the occasional stressful situations, crazy people inside, and freezing cold office, among one of many), I guessed that the people there will treat me right (even if I'm working for the Technical Operations Division, and not within the News Room as what I originally wanted) and that labor issues would not be that of a problem (despite of my awareness that ABS-CBN is facing a lot of labor issues). Third, is that at least by the fact that I have a job, my parents would lessen their nagging on me on "doing nothing" (like what some of my friends are, sad to say).

And since this full-time job is not exactly high-paying (and that it is a contractual one, being 4 years or so, as what the recruitment people told me), and being the unusually crazy person I can possibly be, I decided to get myself a part-time job, which basically involves doing journalism-related stuff by doing lots of research and essentially being on the hunt for news stories, and probably writing about them, and later on delivering the story to the public. My part-time job is something I like to do, especially if I'm not doing anything else. But how about my supposed freelancing as a photographer? I really don't know; I don't see my future in doing photography for the meantime, that's why for now I'm gearing up for writing and pure, unadulterated, and responsible journalism.

So far, I'm done with all the needed pre-employment papers, and I'll relish the remaining few days that I have as an unemployed bum waiting to start work.

Almost a month of bummage and frustration

So it has been almost a month after graduation, and still I am in a state of frustration of finding a job. Well I'm not exactly bumming around (hey, I've been submitting resumes left and right, and I've been to a couple of exams and interviews too); it just happens that I must be one of those graduates who have a hard time finding work. The more I hear that a friend of mine has work, the more I become frustrated, in one way or another.

The frustrations of being a bum? Well there is the painful fact that you don't receive allowance anymore (and that finding rakets seems to be the way to go for me as of the meantime), and there is also the fact that you are not that productive in any sense (save for those times that I am not at home, all I do at home is either sleep, go to the internet, eat, and all those other lazy stuff you can possibly do at home). In short, being a (technically-speaking) bum can be summarized in two things: unproductive AND expensive.

The advantages? Well at least I get to go out and spend some time with friends, or go out spontaneously and do some photoshoots or sightseeing, and things like that. So summing things up, the past month of bummage was spent with buying new stuff, bonding with friends, watching movies, going into photoshoots and photowalks, taking great photos, trying out new restaurants, catching up with the latest stories, and staying tuned to current events too (yes, I'm kinda enthusiastic with that part, just as much as I am with photography).

So while I am off to search for that job, I guess I should make good use of the time available to me because I will never know if I will manage to do these (seemingly unproductive) things once I have a full-time job.

A different view.

This year's Christmas is a tad little different from the previous Christmases I had in the previous years. This year wasn't a fruitful one. Accidents happened, conflicts emerged, injustices are uncovered, classes are oh-so-late-to-finish, among other things.

My lola met an accident, I had a terrible fight with my dad, I had to endure having a hellish semester, my school finished late, and I still have schoolwork to do even during Christmas. A lot of not-so-good things happened to me (and a couple of good ones in between). And add to all the recent events happening in the Philippines, and it makes me wonder if I would still feel the Christmas spirit.

After all, I realized, Christmas was more than the presents, the money, and the material things we would normally get.

In the homily for this morning's Misa de Gallo, I was struck when the priest said that Christmas is all about being together, all about forgiveness, and all about healing. He was right. It's Christmas eve and things seem to be improving here at home. I am now in good terms with my dad. My grandmother can now walk with little aid. I was able to accomplish a part of my handwritten essay. And many more I could not remember.

Yes, we tend to fail to fully understand the true meaning of Christmas, thanks to the event being too capitalist and market oriented. True Christmas, after all, is the appreciation of the simple, non-material things in life.

Merry Christmas!

Single, but not available.

Typical relationship status(es) on social networks: SINGLE, IT'S COMPLICATED, IN A RELATIONSHIP

All (or maybe most) of us know what is it to be single, in a relationship, and it's complicated (the latter being used to create a lot of intrigue to other people, but doesn't really mean anything relevant), but this new term that I have learned from some of my friends from the opposite sex quite interest me. Look at it: you are single, meaning you are not taken or committed to anyone, yet you tag yourself as being not available, meaning you rather live with your single status. Sounds quite paradoxical, eh? It may sound like someone who does not like to have a BF / GF or someone who is "emotionally" committed to like someone.

Such term intrigues me a lot, since to a certain extent, I can relate to the feeling. Although such term would apply mostly to girls, I guess there are guys out there who are like this as well.

Someone who is single yet chooses to be single. It's not your typical oh-my-god-why-I-am-single-feeling we are talking about here. What we are talking about here is the kind of person that is not being frustrated at all on being single. The kind that is happy with his / her life. The kind that feels independent. The kind that looks life in a different perspective. The kind that undergoes extensive preparations for "that" moment.

I actually like the idea of being single but not available. It reduces the hustle and bustle of courting someone, or accepting someone's proposal. You just simply life your life like some happy-go-lucky person. And yes, I look up upon people who are like this (among them are some of my friends from the opposite sex).

My friend told me that there are a couple of reasons on why such kinds of people exist, but I'll emphasize on two main reasons.

1) "I'm not ready to be in a relationship yet"

-I tag this as the type 1 of the single but not available kind of person. Basically, this means that the person is not ready to be in relationship. That person may feel lacking in other aspects, such as being emotionally mature, or schoolwork, that's why a person who is a type 1 would not commit into a relationship. These are the kind of people who want to be well prepared before committing into one. Think of a father preparing enough money so that his children will grow up with good education and a well-off life. These kind of people are those who like to see a relationship as the summary of their achievements and accomplishments in life. They want to make sure that by the time they are into one, everything goes on well.

2) "I'm still waiting for Mr. / Ms. Right to come into my life"

-I tag this, on the other hand, as the type 2 of the single but not available kind of person. These are the kind of people who may have a lot of suitors, but constantly rejects them for the reason that they believe that their suitors are half-baked, in one aspect or another. They are the perfectionists; they want to make sure that their relationship is as perfect as possible, the kind that would be as close to the ideal relationship. They are for the ideal as they are scared of failures, just like when your typical Straight-A student commits a B+ to a subject. They are the ones who fear failure in a relationship. Hence, they will wait and wish for that Mr. / Ms. Right. They want to make sure that everything is perfect, or at the very least, as perfect as possible.

And there we have it. The two classical cases of the single-but-not-available type of person. So if you are single-but-not-available, what fits you best?

Rant(s) of the day #2

-There were a couple of cheesy moments in school recently (today included). Yep for me, life now gets cheesy at times and it also gets a bit too cheesy too. Haha. "Colorful life" best describes last semester, while "Cheesy Moments" best describes this semester. :)

-I love my history class because of its fun curriculum (which in fact is as fun as my curriculum for SA Class). And for the first time, playing a game (to be specific, Civilization) is actually part of our requirements for History. Cool! and it is actually part of our grade!!! Loves it!

-In relation to the previous rant, I was able to get a copy of Civilization 4 (for Mac, which makes it even better) for my interaction part of my History18 grade. Lots of thanks to Javy for being generous in lending me his copy :)

-Well things didn't really start well ACADEMICALLY, like the near-zero state of my first (well technically second according to Ms. Czar Medina) quiz in SA. Time to compensate for that disastrous quiz next time (upcoming for SA: A paper analyzing Star Wars through Social Structure, Social Conflict, and Symbolic interaction . . . anyone kind enough to help me start this thing off? :D)

-Stupid moment in driving: A while ago, I stopped my car to let some students pass by. By my stupid mistake, I accidentally released the clutch (yep I'm driving a manual), thus almost hitting the two dudes. Thank God they didn't get hurt since their bags got hit first. But still it's kinda traumatizing you know. And yes, I'm super sorry to those two dudes for my driving mishap. Gotta be more careful this time. :D

-For the weekend, I have to 1) Read 70+ pages of PoS60 PLUS the Republic; 2) Guidon work!!!; 3) SA paper; and 4) The upcoming NSTP orientation (anyone there whose NSTP is section B, LTS??? :D)

-For some reason I have this sudden spark of studying hard. THANKS TO PoS60 FOR THAT. (And for those who do not know, our PoS60's curriculum, according to a friend of mine, is comparable to typical Philo104 classes in fourth year :) Yep PoS ain't easy just as Accounting and Calculus ain't easy for the Management and Economics students out there)

-It's all hardcore reading for me. Gotta live it it, especially if I pursue my dream of going into law school, where I will be constantly drowned through thousand of pages of Case Studies on a weekly basis (well that's how my cousin describes it haha)

-I'm excited for August because of the Sagala ng Mga Sikat (Translation: One good photo opportunity, which means I better save up double time to get that Flash and possibly new lens plus getting my camera and other lens tuned-up for the event ;) )

-And that's for this week. 'Til next time :)

Rant(s) of the day #1

-Reading an assigned homework once IS not enough. Well if I just re-read it again, I could have gotten a higher (and better) score in my Fil14 quiz a while ago.

-Using fountain pens is like owning a big-ass SUV; it consumes a lot of ink, as compared to your everyday ballpoint pen. Despite loading it with ink last week, it only lasted for barely a week! Thank God I've got a good supply of fountain pen ink at hand ;)

-Tai-Chi = Fun and Stress. Fun because of its wonderful ability of making myself relaxed and prepared for my stressful much class (which is Histo18 . . . but there are many reasons why that class IS stressful). Stress because it gives a lot of pain especially to the legs (and as of this writing, my thighs hurt, but I still manage to walk normally . . . speaking of having resistance to pain)

-PoS60 = Introduction to massive readings. For this semester, we have to read four seemingly difficult and immensely thick books (of which two of them are known as "The Republic" by Plato and "Nicomachean Ethics" by Aristotle). And to think that our first assignment consists of 60 pages all in all (and I have fully read just 27 pages of it) and WE have a quiz on those readings tomorrow!!! And that also includes 20 pages of SA21 readings for tomorrow too! (translation: we have also a quiz on SA21 too!!!) so all the best for me . . . :D

-I hate people making issues about me and other people. Just stop all the gossiping will you? ;)

-Ok, back to reading the other 33 pages for PoS60 :D :D

*And yet I'm still cool despite the amount of work demanded. Haha

Freaky Friday

It's Friday the 13th and this day sucks. 

It all started with History where for the second straight time our professor didn't show up (hence, FREECUT :|). Since uber-cute-girl-from-R36 is my classmate (plus her guy :l), and miss intrigue is also my classmate (plus Atenean batchmates), I still can't EVEN answer myself if I should be happy (because I happen to know at least 1/4 of my History classmates) or be annoyed (since I'm with THAT guy). I really really dunno how to answer my emotions right now.

Still, no matter what may be my REAL emotion (whether it may be joy or sadness or anger or emo or whatever emotion I would feel), I want to do well this semester. Seriously. I want to do better than second semester last year where I basically slacked off 50% of the time yet got better grades than first semester last year. No more slacking off this time.

But for one thing, I do agree with my cool SA21 teacher, Czarina Medina (of Katipunan Magazine and Guidon and the Correspondents) with what she said during our first SA Session: "We are at our best when we are mad." Will anger make the best of me or what???

Another interesting quote is from the God of Readings (of PoS60), RR Raneses. He said, "we all have a sense of perpetual emoness." So that means that all of us have a sense of being emo at times (even if you would not really notice it).

Other reasons why this day sucks? Well for Fil14, I studied and crammed for this since I thought there was a quiz but Dr. Jerry Respeto (who is the Filipino department chairman . . . Yikes :|) cancelled it. Well it's frustrating at one point but hey, it would give me more time to review, so the cancelled quiz was good.

As for PoS51 and PoS100, I hurried my way to CTC only to realize that it was a freecut for both subjects. Yep, this Friday's a real bummer.

Despite being a bummer, I still manage to do some stuff, like review for Fil14, do PRD for Guidon (plug: June 2008 issue coming soon, and I myself is excited for it . . . find out why ;) ), and be present for a meeting and get my desired news stories to do for the July issue (yep, working at the Guidon demands a lot of time, work ,and effort). But nonetheless, I still love my org ;)

Yesterday, I made my trip to Hidalgo to canvas for Camera gear. With my window-shopping, I'd be needing 12.5k (of 12k if I'm lucky enough in making tawad). so my 16k objective would *tear* not buy the gear that I would need. What did attracted me during my window shopping are 1) 28mm 2.8 which costs 9.5k (wait I think this is sort of overpriced, since it is slightly used and considering I saw one being sold for 6k . . . got to ask the store owner himself for some clarifications), and 2) 16-35 2.8L, costing a whopping 39k (despite being slightly used, it's clean but hey, it's actually MORE expensive than your current 450D kit, and I *tear* doubt if I could convince my Lolo to get me that one). Aside from those two, I was able to find (finally) a Mark1 50mm 1.8 but unfortunately it is in bad shape. Boo :(. Anyone there who knows where to find this lens? (NOTE: its NOT the 50mm 1.8 II, BUT the 50mm 1.8 Mark1, the old school version)


That's all. 60 pages of PoS60 readings plus 20+ pages of SA21 readings plus 20+ pages of Fil14 readings. What a weekend.