a now-rare get together

Up to a year ago, the E2012 block spent majority of the week together - attending at leat 1.5 grueling hours of law class. Then 5th year came, when most of us have finished our core subjects and are now taking up electives. Suddenly, seeing each other is a pleasant surprise for everyone. Abour 2 to 4 of us still share same electives, but that's max of it. Gone are the days when we would fill the entire room, sit together and then go out of the classroom like high schoolers (ok, maybe not). With this change, our usually on-the-spot dinner out and semi-planned drinking sessions also went away. Because we missed each other, we kinda had a get together dinner yesterday (yes, on a Thursday night).

Everything started with an invitation from Arcie to watch her make-up demo for Barbs in the student's lounge. Being the kaladkarin that Girlie and I are, we happily went - and got surprised when we saw April, Gian, Lou, Cess, Monica and Roi in the lounge. I'd say this is the largest gathering that we had in the collge outside an OLA component. We each had different agenda - some were there to study, some to kill time before their night jog, and some were just there for lack of a better place to be at. A few minutes later, Lou and Roi went to class and the rest stayed behind to chat. Arcie and I actually had Human Rights class but we ditched it and made tambay with the block (yes, priorities). The folks who were supposed to jog did not even get to go out because it rained really hard. So we agreed to have dinner. Because Lou was still in class, we had to wait for her until 7:30ish.

7:30ish - Lou came out looking depressed because of a recitation that was not up to par with her standards. No, Lou is not generally like that - it's just that the subject is Taxation, which is like her life, practically.By this time, only April, Tin, Girlie, Monica and I were left. We headed to Le Ching in technohub for our dinner because it's supposedly price friendly (and I like chinese food!). We each had our orders and then, conversation began to flow. Monica, Tin, and I talked about how 5 yrs in law school totally changed us; we talked about why we entered law school in the first place, our motivation, etc - things that you only talk about after a round of tequilla. We joined April and Lou's conversation and suddenly it looked as if we had 3 rounds of tequilla. A few interesting quotes in opur conversation are as follows:

(on the reason for entering law school):
Girlie: Na-bore ako, kasi ung bf ko nun law student so lagi ako walang ginagawa
Mateng: Na-challenge lang ako
Monica: I wanted to impress a boy (boom!, Elle Woods?)

(what would you do if you win the lotto tonight with enough money to spend on whatever you like?)
Mateng: I will quit school, quit my job, pay may debts, and buy as many houses as i can
Girlie: I would quit my job and travel
April: I will quit my job and be a full time student
Tin: Un lang? You won the lotto tas gagawin mo lang is to quit your job and study? (ok, easy lang tin)

(if you could have a superpower, what would you want it to be?)
Tin: ESP
(Lou's psychological evaluation: Gusto mong maging omniscient; marami sigurong nagtatago sayo ng secrets)
Mateng: Telekinesis
(Lou's psychological evaluation: Control, freak)
April and Girlie: Ability to fly
(Lou's psychological evaluation: Nagtitipid kayo sa pamasahe)

(if you were a movie, what title would you have?)
Tin: Babangon Ako't Dudurugin Kita (revengeful much)

(if you were a song, what title would you have?)
Mateng: Fireworks
Tin: Wonder (and describes what the song is about)
April: Ok, obviously noone can relate (referring to Tin's song)
Lou: Dapat something that describes what you are
Mateng: Ahh, price tag!

(if you did go to law school, where/what would you be right now?)
Lou: Mayamang myaman na ko, may bahay at kotse (yes Lou, we believe)

(if you were to select between fame, power, money, fortune, what would it be?)
Lou: beauty pa!
April: What? who the hell would choose beauty?
Tin: E if you have powere, you'll have all! You'll be famous, etc
April: Hindi, if you pich one, you'll lose all others?
Girlie, Monica, Tin: Ha, e pano yun, syempre if kung mayaman ka you'll be famous, kung... kung... etc
April: Ay nako, its too complicated! Wag na!
(question left unanswered.)


Haaay, good times. We plan to have a part 2 when we have our out of town. By then, we'll have booze for a better conversation. ;p

baby stacking cups

Something i wrote last year...

The values I want to teach my daughter is probably encapsulated in one toy: baby stacking cups.

(picture from http://www.mothercare.com.sg/)

Everything has its own place where it will fit perfectly. It it doesn't fit, don't insist lest you'll destroy it. You can play with the cups anyway you want, but the sizes, designs, and color of the cups are beyond your control, just the way some realities in life are. There are many cups to play with; you can play with them all by yourself or you can very much share the cups with others and multiply the playing experience. But in doing so, you'll have to realize that each of you will not get the same size. On the brighter side, you have the chance to choose your favorite color, even if it's the smallest cup - that is called a compromise. Because really, you cannot always get what you want. While playing with the cups, you can throw them, submerge them in water, write on them, put some stickers on them or put food in them. After all the playing, you just have to simply gather, clean, and store them up and they'll be good as new for your next playtime. They may crack but you'll most likely be able to fix them. The cups will endure a lot of "playing" scars, but try and put them on fire and you'll say goodbye to them forever. Fire is not necessarily bad, it just goes to show that in some situations some actions are really a no-no. If, in the most unfortunate situation, you lose some cups, the playing experience will never be the same but you can opt to play with the remaining ones and might enjoy yourself just the same.

 

-Mateng Casison, 8/17/2011 while on waiting for inspiration to do productive work in the office.

dizzizit

after reading a couple of blogs, i decided to start my own. i used to marvel at how people can write hundreds of blog articles - i mean really, where do they get the time? then i realized that blogging isn't really a task, i'ts more of an outlet. so now, i'm taking this as an outlet. nevermind that blogging is like creating a diary and publishing it for the world to see - what i'm more concerned about is whether i could sustain this blog. i used to maintain a blog in multiply but after a couple of entries, i stopped writing. in fact, i didn't even recall that i had a blog until one friend asked me if i can revive my blog. haha!

i just revisited my blog and it looked like it was written by some other person. a whole lot has changed since 3 years ago that the january 2009 version of myself is a different person all together. now, that's another bright side of blogging i guess. it lets you document yourself and be amazed by your transformation a few years after.

but my main reason for restarting a blog is not so i can go through it after a while. i am trying to document myself to my daughter and my nieces and nephews can read it when they are able to and get snippets of how things were when they were young or before they were born.

that being said... this blog will contain everything i could write about, but mostly stories and anecdotes of my family.