Momeng!: mundanities

Showing posts with label mundanities. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Today in lists

The Good:

Lots of jasmine tea
Cake and coffee for brunch
Jumping rope
Managing to do 110 consecutive squats
The continuing realization that regular exercise and portion control are slowly having their effect
Listening to new music (Alexi Murdoch, 500 Days of Summer OST, and similar)
Reading Durant (Pleasures of Philosophy)

The Bad:

Unproductivity (couldn't even get self to play Dragon Age for long)
Too many naps
Continued lack of purpose
Lack of employment-related news
The gnawing worry that I'm wasting my time

Random Thoughts:

I want to be able to intelligently and articulately comment on and respond to the things I enjoy and appreciate: writing, music, art, ideas.

I perceive myself as incompetent, more often than not, despite what anyone else might say. I hope this isn't a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm trying to be more positive, to look forward, and all that. I want to convince myself of my own competence at the things I care about: thinking, writing, creating.

I want to have real friends. Or, more accurately, I want to be able to be a real friend. To open up and connect in a genuine way.

I was going to write something more coherent - nah, I wasn't, too lazy. But I will, in the near future! Cross my confused little heart.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Boredom. (What's new?)

Bored. I need something new to do. (Like at a job, but they haven't called me yet!)

I just might perform a delayed New Year's clean-up: clear the clutter in my room, organize my things. Organize the data in my laptop, and so on.

It's been a boring week. My biggest accomplishment has to be keeping up a regular workout routine: 30 minutes of jumping rope every other day, and 15 minutes of jumping rope plus strength training exercises (either pushups/situps/squats or doing weights on the machine) in between. I really hope I can turn this into a habit before I get a job again: so far I might just be succeeding in getting myself to exercise for lack of better things to do!

Monday, January 04, 2010

First working day of the year!

Went back to the office today to take the exam for the developer position. Arrived rather early, before 10 am, and was told that if I do get accepted, it'd be on a contractual basis (i.e., no benefits) for six months. ("Shrug, okay!") Was also told that the next exam schedule was 2:30 pm.

Got to talk with a couple of previous batchmates. Unfortunately I had left my phone at home, so was unable to join them for lunch. (Fail!)

Killed some time walking around Megamall, for lack of a better idea, and also to look for somewhere to print out a copy of my resume. First ended up in Powerbooks - read about data structures, haha. (It would turn out that those are a little outside the scope of an employment exam, and good thing, too!)

Eventually: the walk back to Tektite, coffee, the exam. Lasted two and a half hours. At first it seemed too much for me (not really a coder), but all in all, it was doable. It was fun taking the exam alone in a small conference room with an awesome view.

P.S. I think I like taking exams, and if nothing else, I'm somewhat good at it. Not exactly something to be proud of, but...

Friday, January 04, 2008

Reporting for duty.

One.

Two.

Three!

Had no classes today, basically just hung around at the usual places: coffee at Vargas in the morning, sat at Sunken, had lunch at Mashitta, sat around at Katag. Then over to her place to try cooking tortang pancit canton and fail twice; by the third time we had achieved a moderate success, but were sort of sick of the concoction already, haha (from already having had two, not because tortang pancit canton is a bad idea).

We also got lens cleaning cloths, yay. Our glasses shall be smudged no more.

That's pretty much it, for now. (The day might not be over yet.)

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Sticky noodles

I was planning to try writing something here everyday, but the DSL was down last night when I got home (yet again, crappy PLDT service), and it was nearly midnight, and I was a bit tired and sleepy already, so I just went off to sleep.

But last night was fun. Spent the afternoon and had dinner at Vilma's boarding house, thanks to her urge to feed us spaghetti. Jeanne and I brought some bread, and prepared a green salad with mango and orange, yay. Had some wine after dinner, while working on a box of chocolates and watching an amusing but fairly inscrutable Italian film. We even lit some candles stuck into empty wine bottles. Never mind if it looked more like the electricity had gone out rather than any sort of romantic.

First day of this year's classes, today, only one of my professors showed up, and we just discussed the answers to the exam we had before the break. Met with the ExL execom to discuss org-related matters. All in all, a pretty good day, I guess.

Pardon the rather uninspired writing, I'm not used to doing this anymore. Too easily distracted now, and it's not like I usually have a point, to begin with, so you see. I have a theory (read excuse): I need to get all this crap out of my system first before I can go back to my old (relatively better) ways. Yeah. Pardon the phlegm.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Journal Entry Number Seven

Lethargy

Last night I fell asleep while resting my eyes for a bit, and tonight I'm feeling quite low on energy, too. I wonder why this is. I haven't been doing any more work than usual. I hope I'm not not eating right, or not getting enough sleep...

Hmm. I hope I haven't become dependent on coffee, either. I think I haven't had proper coffee, these past few days...

Again, for the record

(Processing to come eventually but not right now, so feel free to skip the raw transcript below, thanks.)

Monday. No classes, stayed at home to not get much done, as usual (although I did prepare for the lecture I was to give on Wednesday, and cut a hole in a plastic soda bottle for our Physics 191 demo (total internal reflection)). Tuesday. Philo 11 midterms, did well enough, I suppose. Found out that the bottle I made worked fine! Went with Jyan and Vilma to Bubble Tea in the afternoon. Finished one out of two problem sets due Thursday in the evening. Wednesday. 191 workshop in the morning, progress reports (no lecture!) in the afternoon. Hung out in the food court: coffee, a mini baguette and a tuna turnover from French Baker, capped off by "Manila Fries" (small chicharon bits) from R.Lapid's. In the evening rewrote problem set and attempted to finish the other one to no avail. Thursday. Tried to make bubble mixtures in Theory out of detergent, starch, glycerin and water. Made bubbles, but the differences between solutions that we wanted to show weren't that evident. Finished the problem set during the long break. Dinner at Sbarro: cheese pizza extra cheese, half baked ziti, and a sighting of a German exchange student. Friday, i.e., today. Classes as per usual. Lunch at Wok Dis Way: sisig with cheese! Proceeded to do CWTS, i.e., hang out at the NIP Lib. Jeanne came over to watch us play Hangaroo and the slapping game. Chocolat: Bailey's cake, English scone (something like a cross between pancakes and muffins and cookies, which are apparently actually biscuits?). At the food court we almost sat next to the twins (should write them up sometime, or something, and, no, you probably don't know them, unless you spend the same amount of time that we do at the SM North food court, didn't think so, i.e., in short, not *those* twins), but wussed out. They later moved to a table next to ours, which was kind of weird. Dinner: Binalot, tapadobo/tocidobo. Bow.

Now what?

Well all the typing seems to have woken me up a little. I guess I'll go see what I can do. Oh, the exciting life I lead!

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Journal Entry Number Six

Another lazy weekend

It's been a lazy weekend again, echoes of the monster weekend that just passed? In any case I managed not to get much of anything done. Dabbled a bit in some online RPGs, did some articles, bummed around some.

Well, okay, fine, for the record:

Saturday I met up with Jeanne in the morning so we could spend some time together before my 2 pm make up class. Chanced upon Yas and Abby who were at the AS steps for the Book Fair volunteers' meeting. Wandered around UP a bit.

Had lunch at Mashitta, where we met Frau Lenz, one of Jeanne's German professors, and got to talk about higher education in Germany. She's a member of DAAD, Germany's academic exchange organization, which handles foreign students from the undergraduate to the Ph.D. level. Short version: it'd be hard to get a scholarship for a master's degree; easier for a Ph.D., but only if I had taken my master's here. Master's degrees are aimed more for practical courses like engineering, while doctorate courses are intended to help other countries' academes.

While eating I found out that the make up class was canceled (our professor got sick), so we had the rest of the day to ourselves. Proceeded to SM to while away the afternoon. Tried out the new Bubble Tea place. Had cold Almond Milk Tea, which was fine, and hot Royal Milk Tea, which was better. They have this cool sort of second floor that's nice for hanging out in. I tried to write, to no avail.

Then it was to the food court, our usual haunt (we're cheap, really, sometimes). Talked, hung out, etc. Had lugaw, and, well, fries. Haha. Stayed there until going home.

Okay, now what?

Well, I've been thinking thoughts again.

Having never satisfactorily finished a short story, I still do not know what sort of approach I should take. I've been telling myself to just pick one to go ahead and try, but it doesn't seem to work that way, either.

I've been thinking of going through my blog archives to see what sort of things I always end up talking about. I'm supposing it'd be easier to write something revolving around those things, since I'd be sure that I'd have something to say, eh?

Speaking of recurrence, well, it's happening again. Aha. That feeling of ending up in the same ruts, the same patterns and routines. I suppose that's part of what's called 'identity'?

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Things to do:

1. Study for upcoming Optics exam this week. (It's been postponed too many times, never got around to reviewing for it. This is on top of the subject being, well, quite boring, at least the way it's being taught at the moment.)

2. Get around to applying for a DSL connection. (I don't know how long I've been planning to do this already. Since the summer vacation, I think?)

3. Get around to fixing the password mishap that led to me not being able to access my Unionbank EON account online. (This is not serious, but might turn out to be a real hassle someday.)

4. Get out of the loooong-weekend-induced slump. I'm not in high school anymore!

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

This title refuses to be helpful.

I'm out of practice at this. Let's see.

I have yet to decide whether I really want to pursue this physics thing. I've been advised by this graduate student I know that I should begin planning if I intend to continue studying abroad right after finishing my undergraduate degree here. (He spoke to me with the conviction of experience.)

On one hand, I'm not doing so bad at this. Well, I manage to stay somewhere in the upper half of my batch, at least (a bit of false modesty, hem hem). But, well, on the other hand, I'm not doing spectacularly. Perhaps I'm expecting too much, or, that is, looking for too obvious a confirmation of my life decisions.

I don't know.

In any case, it's not my place to be complaining about anything, really, but sometimes I just wish I could be someone more... effectual. Or, for that matter, someone who knew what he wants to affect. BUT ANYWAY.

I've recently upgraded to a 5 gig player, and I'm not used to having almost all of my music in my pocket yet. (Yeah, pretty small collection, I suppose, relatively.) No idea how to create playlists, but it should be fun to learn how to put songs together for greater effect.

So far, having an actual screen, and being able to browse through the songs easily, are the main novelties. Also the nifty touch pad.

I must not let the lazy defeat meeee