What Time Is It?

I only recently got into Adventure Time--I trust I don't have to explain what Adventure Time is to you--and so I decided to make a post about it since it is a big part of my sophomore year of college.

The way I see it, people either love or hate Adventure Time. Sure, there may be people who don't give a rat's behind but they probably haven't seen it or they just don't wanna get into the societal structure that comes with liking/hating AT. And I think my theory is true because I used to be one of the gray people who neither love nor hate AT. In simpler terms, a gray person is someone who doesn't want to love or hate Adventure Time because he or she doesn't want to conform to what everyone else is getting into.

Let me tell you the history of Adventure Time and Me. The first I heard of Adventure Time was through my friend, Paolo, in the summer after Freshman year. He just finished taking the entrance exam for transferees and we were on our way to have lunch. He had actually mentioned Adventure Time before but I didn't really ask him to explain more. I thought AT was a series like Game of Thrones, I didn't really think it was a cartoon so I wasn't interested. But I was feeling generous with my attention that day so I listened to him talk about a boy named Finn and a dog Jake. He was talking about a girl vampire that was really cool, named Marceline. And he wanted to share something funny but he couldn't remember so that brought us nowhere.

Fast forward a couple of months, when he was already settled in the unit next door. The first few weeks of my sophomore and his freshman (he had to go back to 1st year) year, I used to go to his place a lot and he would force me to watch his series over dinner or while we were trying to study.

By then he had a new favorite character named LSP, whom I know now to be Lumpy Space Princess. He made me watch her debut episode, "Trouble in Lumpy Space" and the episode "The Monster." Paolo really enjoyed the masculine, valley girl accent of LSP and I caught on, too. I began enjoying mimicking the voice, and the line "no, Jessica, don't cheat on Tony with me!" and how she was very rude to her parents, calling them "horrible idiots." [If Paolo's reading this, I bet he's laughing his head off.]

But after a while, when we focused on other series like Downton Abbey, Pretty Little Liars, Game of Thrones, etc. I slowly forgot about Adventure Time. But I discovered that my blockmate, Bridget, was really into it during one of our Accounting classes. She often asks me to teach her (imagine me teaching Accounting haha!) before classes start. She pulled out her phone on time and asked me to listen to her ringtone. It was Jake's "HAHAHAHAHA" laugh. I laughed only politely because I wasn't interested in Adventure Time that... time. I remembered, though, LSP. And we talked about her for a while.

Sometime later, Bridget posted a video of LSP's quotes on my Facebook Timeline and I told her I'd try to memorize them all. I actually still wasn't all that interested in Adventure Time then. When I watched the LSP video, I got sucked into the YouTube phenomenon that is watching a whole lot more videos related to that. I somehow ended up with the Fry Song, the one Marceline sang lamenting the fact that her Daddy ate her fries. But the version I watched wasn't called the Fry Song, but Marceline's Song. I had stumbled on the demo version by one of AT's storyboard artists, Rebecca Sugar, posted by her dad on his YouTube account.

I guess it was the whole acoustic, ukulele, simplicity thing that got me attracted to the song. I learned it immediately on the guitar (and began longing for a ukulele) and sang it to my heart's content. Soon after, I began watching the other demo videos and played them on my guitar. In fact, I learned Rebecca's version of songs before I even heard them on their episodes.

By now it was term break, and I had to go to the previously mentioned NLDC. I gave me brother some money and asked him to buy me a ukulele. I got the message that he got me one already and I couldn't wait to go home and start playing. Once I got home, I began playing all of Rebecca Sugar's AT songs. When we went back to Pampanga, I brought my ukulele and my brother's external hard drive with the first three seasons of Adventure Time on them and had a week of Adventure Time fun.

Today, I love AT but I don't think I'm quite the fan. I don't know every single character and every single episode by heart yet so I'm gonna work on that. With so many things to do, I wonder though if I'll be able to re-watch the episodes.

So now I'll talk about my views on the characters. I will try to get even the minor characters, but it could be that I don't have enough feelings for them to give them a description. In no particular order:

Finn

Finn the Human

He's a pretty cool character, and I appreciate how though he is the main character, the show doesn't always make him the center of attention. His sense of honor and integrity are admirable, especially in a cartoon character. When I think of Finn I often think of the impression he gives on the children watching the show and so far, it's a good one. Kids today can stand to be more like Finn.

Jake

Jake the Dog

The most adult character in the show, in my opinion, and I don't mean adult in the "adult" kind of way. His humor is more attuned to the older generations and even his wacky antics make me laugh (though they might not to others). Despite being rather simple, his ability actually makes for good entertainment, something I found quite pleasing. At first the thought of a stretching dog was kinda boring, but AT makes it fun.

Lady Rainicorn

Lady Rainicorn
One of the cutest characters, I love how Lady Rainicorn speaks only in Korean. The random weirdness of that is exactly why I love Adventure Time. Her relationship with Jake is also shown nicely. It was clear from "My Two Favorite People" that she was Jake's girlfriend and they had a relationship that was believable and not just for cartoon comedic relief. In " Lady & Peebles" we get to see more of her but not too much if you know what I mean. Like, sometimes when creators want to show more of a character they go overboard and lose the character, but Lady Rainicorn was consistent throughout the series as this semi-aloof, polite-ish Rainicorn. And that's what I like about her character.

BMO

BMO
We don't exactly know the gender of BMO. It is voiced by Niki Yang, who also voices Lady Unicorn. BMO has a noticable East Asian accent, and I love it for that! BMO is a media player, musical instrument, and video game console all in one, and in "BMO Noire" a pretty awesome detective. I love listening to BMO's voice because it reminds me of my Korean friends.

Princess Bubblegum

Princess Bubblegum
Okay, this is sort of a semi-rant. I don't like PB. As a princess, she's naturally made out to be kind and all that and I don't know if it's just me, but PB seems rather mean and often lacks foresight. I admit, I haven't really analyzed most of the episodes in Adventure Time, but from the episodes I can remember, PB wasn't shown in good light. She lacks empathy and is quick to have some of her enemies killed or punished. Sure, she visits the orphanage and is really concerned with the welfare of her people but like Sirius Black in the Goblet of Fire said,

 "If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." 

In this case, it's how she treats her enemies and I think that is still a good indicator.
But there are some things I like about her. I like that she spends time with Finn and the others despite being a princess. It makes the line between her and her people thinner.

Marceline 

Marceline Abadeer / Marceline the Vampire Queen
I you know me at all, you'll know that Marceline is easily my favorite character. And I think I share that with hundreds of thousands of AT fans across the world. I always pick as my favorite character the characters that break social structures, or in a lamer way, the "rebels." Marceline is actually a stereotypical character. She doesn't want to rule the Nightosphere but prefers traveling (until "Evicted!"), she has 'daddy issues', she doesn't like being all formal (sort of seen in her interactions with Princess Bubblegum), and she's closed off from society both physically and emotionally (she lives in a house in a cave which nobody is allowed to go in, and doesn't like her emotions being revealed, "It Came From the Nightosphere" and "What Was Missing").
Despite being a stereotype, Marceline has the most depth of all the characters in AT. So far she is the only one with a history that is engaging and makes you want to know more. Her relationship with the Ice King and what happened in the Mushroom War, her fight with Princess Bubblegum, what happened to her mom, is she a vampire? (There's a long article on reasonable, fact-based speculations on the Analysis of Marceline's origins on the Adventure Time Wiki.)
Aside from the depth of her character, another reason I like Marceline is, well, because she has powers. Jake can stretch and Lady Rainicorn can change objects' colors but Marceline is the only protagonist with deadly powers. Also, she plays musical instruments and sings about her feelings, which I think is cool. But perhaps the number one reason I relate to Marceline and other characters like her is because she doesn't like showing her emotions.

EDIT: In addition to that, her voice is like "liquid love." I got that from a top YouTube comment haha.

Ice King

The Ice King
I congratulate the writers of Adventure Time in making my feelings for the Ice King take a 180-degree turn. Honestly, one of the main reasons I avoided AT before this was because of the Ice King. And the reason is rather pathetic. I hated the Ice King because his voice actor was Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob Squarepants. And I hate Spongebob. The voice was difficult to bear for a while but when the showed (gradually) that the Ice King was actually a sad, lonely, creepy perverted old man, he kinda grew on me.
Also, the fact that he also has a tragic history like Marceline's is another reason I got less annoyed. Having an empathetic ability like mine, I understand how certain experiences and how people treat you can affect your personality. And that made me feel for him. And the helplessness he felt in "I Remember You" not only gives the viewer an insight on his past as Simon Petrikov, but it also leaves you to wonder what could have possibly happened that would take him away from Marceline, or what the crown made him do that would make her leave.

LSP

Lumpy Space Princess

If a stranger decided to watch Adventure Time and came across any LSP-centered episode, he or she might get annoyed. LSP is a rude and assuming lump, but that's what we love about her. She is an exaggeration of a typical teenage girl inclusive of high school drama. No one can say LSP lacks confidence. I am embarrassed to admit that I like her for the same reason Paolo likes her: she's totes mean and easily insults people.

Earl of Lemongrab

The Earl of Lemongrab
Yes, it's kind of odd to have the Earl of Lemongrab in this list. But I just wanted to take this time to mention how creepy he is. I think it's mainly his creepy, high voice. Thinking about it on a psychological perspective, I think the reason his high voice creeps me out is because it sounds like he's in a state of panic. And when I hear his panicky high voice juxtaposed with the calm state that I am in (laying on the bed watching Adventure Time) my mind conflicts with itself--should I panic? Why? I'm just on the bed!
What... anyway, despite being totally creepy, like the Ice King, I feel for Lemongrab. According to the Wiki, he's got a sort of Frankenstein thing going on with him, and trying to see inside his head, you begin to realize it must be a crazy ride and that it's not really his fault that he acts that way. You just wanna try to relieve him of the sourness that goes on.








If I could, I'd talk more of the Lich and other characters, but I don't have a lot of time to talk about them. So I'll talk about relationships now. There are only two relationships I want to focus on, the more controversial ones.

"You threw me off!"

Between Princess Bubblegum and Marceline

When I first heard 'I'm Just Your Problem' on YouTube, I saw most of the comments were about the relationship between these two. The issue of homosexuality in children's cartoons is nothing new. In fact, I just searched for it on Google, and there are a bunch of results.

I can't be sure if it's because I watch it, or because I hadn't really noticed the other, but Adventure Time is the first children's cartoon that I watched that features a most-likely-homosexual relationship. I say 'most-likely-homosexual' because it is possible that they aren't and that our society is just so inclined to believe that an unorthodox relationship between two girls is a sign of lesbianism already (ahem, Paolo). Are viewers just jumping the gun?

Let's try to look at this objectively. The speculation began after the episode "What Was Missing" when Marceline let out her feelings in singing 'I'm Just Your Problem'. After that, the t-shirt that Marceline evidently gave PB, and the blush on Marceline's cheeks when PB said she wears it every night. The blush may have been the reason people believe that Marceline has feelings for PB. But what does blushing mean? We blush when we're embarrassed. But because of similar situations in other media (especially in anime), blushing means affection. So it's possible that Marceline was actually just embarrassed.

In her song 'I'm Just Your Problem,' Marceline makes it out that the two of them had a falling out in the past. She seems to say that it was because of something Marceline did or was doing that PB didn't like ("I'm sorry I don't treat you like a goddess... I'm sorry I don't treat you like you're perfect") which may be because of Marceline's personality or behavior ("Am I not sweet enough for you?"). And Marceline knows that but she believes it's not her (Marceline's) problem that PB feels that way ("I shouldn't have to justify what I do... shouldn't have to prove anything to you... I forget what landed me on your blacklist") but despite that, she still wants to make up and be friends (or whatever they were) again.

As someone who had a fall out with a girl friend before, I can understand where Marceline's coming from heterosexually. It's possible to have feelings like that when you've had a fight with a friend and you strongly believe it's not your fault but in the end it doesn't matter who's wrong or who's right because you just want to be friends again. There wasn't a t-shirt in my situation but if the other person had kept something that I gave her I would also feel embarrassed because I would realize that she values our friendship more than I did, and I should just put my ego aside and apologize (like Marshall and Lily's fight).

Right now it might seem like I am against the 'Bubbline' pairing, but I'm actually not. As a proud friend of gays and lesbians (that's just half true, but not my fault. It's not exactly easy to force a friendship!... or to figure out which ones are gay...), I completely support the representation of the LGBT community in cartoons. With regard to the arguments going over the internet between those anti-Bubbline and those pro, a shrew top comment from YouTube cleared things up and posed a more important issue: the YouTubers weren't protesting the validity of the Bubbline pairing, they were protesting the fact that the person from the Mathematical! channel who issued an Adventure Time promotional video that explicitly questioned the possible relationship between Marceline and Princess Bubblegum was fired from his job. The message being sent there was that it was wrong to expose children to the idea of homosexuality.

So with all of that said, I am for relationship but won't go so far as setting it in stone. I'll leave that up to the writers.

Marceline hugs the Ice King

Between Marceline and the Ice King

I find the relationship between these two very interesting. I was also relieved that it was more of a father-daughter relationship because, honestly, eew at a Marceline and Ice King pairing (what would you call that, Marceking?). The relationship brings a lot of depth into the characters. And raises a lot of questions, too. I mentioned some of those questions above.

Simon consoling little Marceline

The episode "I Remember You" showed us more of the great Mushroom War, or at least the aftermath of the war. A lot of facts become clear to us: (1) the Ice King is older than Marceline, (2) Marceline wasn't a vampire yet (already clear from 'Marceline's Closet' but now we're more certain), (3) the crown is what makes the Ice King live so long but at the same time, makes him forget his past, and perhaps the greatest discovery was (4) that it was the Ice King who gave Marceline her beloved stuffed toy Hambo. And one of the questions raised after this episode was the question of her father, Hunson Abadeer, and how this little kid came to be the Vampire Queen and in line to rule the Nightosphere.

The huge gap between this time and the present is what seems to be the new main plot of Adventure Time (remedied by the exciting cliff hanger of the season 3 finale, "The Lich"). Answering the questions and filling in the gap will give a lot of depth to the series as well as the characters. What attracts viewers to Adventure Time may be the seemingly random adventures that Finn and Jake go through but as evidenced by polls in the Wiki, the most liked episodes are the ones that have a sense of continuity in them. My only wish for the writers and Pendleton Ward is to continue building on their already strong fan base, but at the same time not forgetting the random adventures. There are only a few episodes that have continuity and I believe they have reached the perfect balance between the two.

And finally, the last part of my Adventure Time blog post is the gender-bender episode, Fionna and Cake.

Titlecard for the 'Fionna and Cake' episode

I love the idea of a gender-bender episode, because it adds to the creative imagination of the viewers. Also, it generates preferences. Some people might like Fionna better than Finn, or Prince Gumball than Princess Bubblegum (although that may be just because the great Neil Patrick Harris voices PG). Or in another case, make a pairing of the alternate character such as the Marceline and Marshall Lee pairing.

Marshall Lee

Doing the \m/ sign

Needless to say, my favorite gender-bent character is Marshall Lee. And though he was on screen for less than ten seconds, he has already developed a large fan base that includes the author of this blog. But as I learned in my recent lectures in Filipino and Western History, you learn a lot from the things that aren't said. And Marshall Lee is one character I bet millions of fans have created stories about. His cool demeanor and plaid shirt is enough to make a girl (or guy, sure) fall in love with him. Personally, I had in my mind a sort of aloof guy who is surprisingly nice. He looks like a bad boy but is actually a gentleman... 

What... anyway, I can't wait to see his debut in "Bad Little Boy". This storyboard art from the Wiki hints at a possible romantic relationship between Marshall Lee and Fionna (to the disappointment of those wishing for a Prince Gumball and Marshall Lee pairing, as well as the Bubbline one because if their male counterparts don't have the hots for each other, it's possible that the writes have in mind that Marceline and Bubblegum don't either).

Storyboard art for "Bad Little Boy"

This concludes the Adventure Time post. I have a lot more to say, but I have to leave early for school tomorrow. Good night!

AIESEC stuff and 1st Sem

My last post 5 months ago was about the start of my first semester. It is now the 2nd week of the second semester, and so many things have happened since then that I don't think I can even fit it in one post.

First things first, what has been going on with my AIESEC life?

Well, last September I signed up to be a facilitator for AIESEC's 2nd Global Youth Summit where I got to listen to speakers talking about their journey through life; their successes, their failures, and what they got from those experiences. It was a great experience, and I felt a lot closer to being the person I want to be, being in the presence of people who have reached their goals in life, or at least have an outlook on life that is similar to mine.

The Global Youth Summit was my first MC-wide project, in other words, my first exposure to AIESEC in the Philippines rather than just my LC, AdMU. I got to meet AIESECers from UP, San Beda, and even an LC-mate that otherwise I would never have met.

A couple of months after that, I was a delegate in the 5-day National Leadership Development Congress (I always thought it was 'conference') in Antipolo. The first day (Day 0, oddly enough) was actually the Leadership Convergence Summit at Blue Leaf. I had to miss the first half of it because I came from my online enlistment... that I did in Pampanga. To be honest, I hung around the house for as long as I could, hoping I would end up eventually not going. I was still very nervous about spending 5 days away from home.

But I seemed to have answered that on my own, because when my mom suggested that I just not go I replied that I had already paid the conference fee. So basically the only thing pushing me to go was the conference fee.

Of course, I am very glad that I did go because it was another great experience. I met even more people from the other LCs, mostly from UST. I also learned how AIESEC works--I mean, I knew before but this time I was made more aware. I think that helped us a lot because now that we know what AIESEC is about, we can work with a more definite goal in mind. I won't try explaining AIESEC in this post because it would probably take me as long as my entire membership to explain AIESEC to you.

Another plus, there were a lot of us Finance guys at NLDC, and the functional meetings were like a reunion with Nicky, my first boss ever. Speaking of the Finance Department, I wanna point out how it is quite difficult to connect finance to what AIESEC does. For one thing, we are a not-for-profit organization and so one wouldn't really think we have a lot to do. And another, with AIESEC's goals of engaging the youth, providing leadership, etc., you don't really see the fruits of your labor, working in Finance.

That is the burden we have to live with. I actually work as a Finance Manager for a PBoX (project based on exchange) so I see the fruits of MY labor a bit. But then again, I'm not a Team Leader so I don't really know what goes on beyond my job. But yeah, though finance is an integral part of any organization, it is often the one that hides in a bubble--as my La Sallian group mate mentioned in one of our activities. And I find it great that Ria (my current boss) is trying to break that bubble and make us more visible in the LC, which has proven successful, I think.

But what do you care about my AIESEC work, right? My 'non-existent readers' are just my future self looking back on my college life. But for the sake of an actual reader, I'll begin talking about academics now.

So I mentioned I slipped out of Robert Yu's French class and snaked my way into Carmina Bautista's. It turned out great, I got an A but I don't think that was as much Ma'am Bautista's fault as it was my high school background in French.

If you're reading this to try to check if she's a good prof or not, don't bother. She's great. Take her. If you don't take her then I'm assuming you found another prof you like better, or you're just weird. But remember the context: I took French in high school. I'm probably not the best judge of teaching-skills for French 1 because half of the stuff she taught I already knew. If you're wondering why I didn't take French 2 instead, the answer is pretty simple and I'm guessing you already knew it: the easy A grade. But beyond that it was also because I was having Math 22 and Accounting 20 in the same semester and I thought a lighter load wouldn't hurt. And I'm glad I did because I got into the Dean's List that semester.

If you're gonna argue with me (as I did to Paolo) that I wasted my education not expanding my knowledge by taking French 1, I'd say you were kinda right. But even though I said that half of the stuff she taught I already knew, the other half was enough to complete what I NEEDED to know. I wasn't planning on taking French to learn the language (as Paolo is planning on doing), I just wanted to learn the basics so I wouldn't get lost when I go to French-Canada. Although, looking back, I learned more helpful things in high school French like asking 'ou se trouve' and directions and stuff like that. But anyway...

My other professors were Dr. Marquez and Lua Pottier for Sci 10. Sci 10 differs with every professor so if yours aren't these two then don't bother reading the rest of the paragraph and the next. Doc Sio (his name is Norman Dennis E. Marquez, and there's an interesting story behind why he's called Doc Sio, which I won't tell) is the head of the Health Sciences Department and yes, that matters because it helps if you see where he's coming from when he discusses.

Doc Sio has been described as very 'idealistic.' Which after taking his class, I understood to mean that he wants a definite answer to every single one of his questions. You can go on and on for minutes just yelling out answers which he reply with "what else?" or "okay, but what else???" because he wants the exact words. Our class was made up of ME, MH, and MIS blocks. I think he chose us because he wanted to reach out to the future leaders of the country (pfft) and show them how we can help the environment and stuff like that. But again, that's not what you're here for, is it. Okay take this down, his tests are multiple choice and matching type and it's that type of test that has pretty vague answers that are close to each other. Also, they are not found in most of his lectures, so don't bother studying. He has bonus points so try to keep up with current events.

Lua Pottier is the... co-instructor? I guess? Well, she only had one lecture in the entire semester and it was simply a review for our first long test. She explained that Doc Sio really liked our class so he asked her not to have a lecture haha. She attends every class, though, and during reports she usually asks pertinent questions. She's one of those 'cool' professors who give lively discussions that are youth-oriented. I found myself wishing she had more sessions.

For Theology 121, I got Sir Justin Badion. I don't wanna go through explaining the entire semester but be satisfied with this: he's awesome. And I say that because I got an A. HAHA. With sir Badion, you kinda just have to study/memorize the handouts. His tests are easy identifications. He also looks for quotes, bible verses towards the end. His lectures are very organized, meaning he won't go ahead if the other classes are not up to your pace. He has an inter-class grade competition. He loves the Blue Eagles so if you get him in 1st sem get ready to have a quiz when we lose. He's an Atenean graduate so he'll really feel for ya and stuff. Just don't ever, ever, ever be noisy or interrupt him because he gets pissed and you don't like it when he's pissed.

WAIT. What am I doing? You can read all of this stuff at projectblue.me! I can't be wasting my blog giving you tips on which professors to pick! I'll end this post now and talk about Adventure Time next.

Erratum

Okay, you would not BELIEVE this. Barely a breath after publishing my previous post about French and Sir Yu, I got a message from my friend Lizle saying she switched FLCs from Spanish to Japanese.

Earlier this morning, I thought free for all was for the late registration-students. Now I realize that makes no sense, otherwise they wouldn't have called it 'free for all.' And so with aching hope, I clicked on the Enlist/Delist button of my 1FR and saw, to my amazement, a slot opened up for Bautista, Carmina (the professor I originally wanted for French). And I say 'a slot' because it was literally 1 slot in that class.

I faced another dilemma. Calling my trusty best friend, Paolo--he replied with "Ugh, whaaaat?" and we had connection issues before he boldly told me to go and take Carmina Bautista! The sudden support for my decision was enough for me to click 'Enlist' and confirm that I am giving up my Sir Yu slot!

After minutes of brain-daze and such, I went back to my computer screen to check my messages. Lizle was looking for reviews for her new Japanese professor, and since I was given nothing but a single 'she's good' review about Bautista, I gave it a shot and asked her to search for me.

She very kindly gave me the most meaningful con:

- It may be a bit difficult to properly hear the dialogues that she plays from the disc included in the book. - Will often have quizzes about the previous topic at the next meeting. - Long tests are hard, but in turn makes the midterms and finals VERY EASY.

As you can see, the cons include pros, and these aren't even things I worry about in professors! I worry about them being mean, or unfair. I don't care if I can't hear discs--I could always tell her that! And I care much less about how hard her tests are! This is great!

Lizle gave me the pro:

- Is very passionate about her subject. Makes it a whole lot easier to understand the lesson. - Emphasizes the importance of understanding French culture in order to effectively understand the language itself. - Inspirational stories about her experiences in France during study tours can really inspire you to do well in her subject, to love the language, and to even pursue a minor in French studies. - Easy to be exempted from the finals, provided that you recite often, and do well in her LTs. - Provides a lot of opportunities to raise your grade (bonus papers, frequent oral recitation).

The first six words already blow me away: "is very passionate about her subject" is THE greatest thing a professor of mine could be! I have great respect for teachers who are passionate about their subject (e.g. Sir Roque, Sir Lumboy, Dr. Garces, etc.)

"Makes it a whole lot easier to understand the lesson" -- is there anything better than a teacher who tries to see through the eyes of a student?!

"Emphasizes the importance..." -- this is EXACTLY what any student taking FLC needs! To know the importance of a subject brings about the desire to learn, which improves performance!

"Inspirational stories about her experiences in France..." -- we all need a little inspiration every now and then, especially with a course that demands much of my time-- "...to even pursue a minor in French studies." -- Nah. No, thanks, haha.

"Easy to be exempted form the finals," BOO-YA! "--provided that you recite often, and do well in her LTs." - yeeeeaah, I don't recite often but if it were for her, I would!

"Lots of opportunities to raise your grade (bonus papers, freq. oral recitation)." -- great! More time to practice my French!



So, in the end, everything turned out okay. I sacrificed starting the week at 1:30 everyday, but what's 2 hours? My new week starts at 11:30, and my Tuesdays-Thursdays are down to 9:00 AM and I have nothing to worry about on TTH except Accounting and Math, and afterward, I get to unwind with Volleyball. Sophomore Year, 1st Sem is turning out to be pretty good. Please don't let this be a sign that I'm out by the end of it hahaha.

Cheers!

 

Hey, It's Been a While. Enlistment!

I'm not quite sure whether the way in which I capitalize the letters in my title is correct, but let's leave it at that.

It is that time of the month when I realize I haven't been posting anything on my college blog. Usually that time of the month comes after something AISIS-related happens. In this case, enlistment.

For the second time, and probably not the last, I'm at the last batch. My first enlistment (1st year, 1st sem) I was random number 774 or something like that. It wasn't a problem because I only had to pick out my NatSci and PE. I was lucky on both accounts because I got a pretty decent line-up. For the 2nd semester I moved up to 3rd batch. Again, it was easy enough, Biotech and ES were just staring at me in the face while lawn tennis opened up a whole new world of fun. And well, whaddaya know, my first shot at 1st batch came during my Sophomore Summer term. The summer I decide to take only ONE subject.

Out of that waste of a 1st batch I got to meet the Wonderful William haha. I guess it's no use denying it since I will never see him again. YES! I had a crush on my ITM professor, who shall go by the alias 'Wonderful William' hahaha mainly to avoid this post being picked up by a Google search. And by 'crush' I will ask MacAvoy (my laptop's name, if you recall) to show my the definition:

crush (noun) [informal] a brief but intense infatuation for someone, esp. someone unattainable or inappropriate

This is a fitting definition, I must say, especially on the part that says "for someone, esp. someone unattainable or inappropriate" haha. However, the "intense" part doesn't fit my definition of crush since it had not, in any way, affected my performance in ITM. I am rather good at compartmentalizing (scarily so, in fact).

And it was brief. I force myself to believe that because it is also the inevitable. "Out of sight, out of mind," they say, and "absence makes the heart grow fonder" implies that we will meet again--which we won't. Sadly.

But moving on. Today's enlistment was crazy! In hindsight, it was actually pretty good, but what does hindsight know?! I'm not the only one who experienced AISIS crashing like a wave during a storm, so I'm not being irrational here! I came into this enlistment fully prepared--I planned out my pre-enlisted schedule so that I would know which time I would be free, I checked Class Schedules dozens of times to map out all possible sections I could enlist in.

But when enlistment came, the server came crashing down, and I lost the last 2 slots for French with Bautistaaaaa! So instead I had to get my high school French teacher, Sir Robert Yu. I had the option to take an Easy-A German class but, to quote Paolo, "the opportunity cost is very close to [my] 'heart'."

I'm pretty sure he thought of the 'opportunity cost' part because he's an incoming AB Eco-H student, fresh from UP Manila. But the future economist is right. French is the most important FLC for me to take, at this point in my life haha. I am turning 18 this Septe--wait, no, that has nothing to do with why I so badly want/need to take French.

You see, I am a Canadian citizen jus soli. One of the only things I remember about Law on Persons back in 3rd year haha. Jus soli is Latin for 'right of the soil' (Wikipedia) and basically it means I am a citizen of Canada because I was born on their soil. I am not, however, an 'anchor baby' or a child born in another country to facilitate the immigration of relatives as evidenced by the fact that neither I nor my family is in Canada right now. I think it just so happened that my dad was working there when I just so happened to be born.

Though I have, and feel, no real connection to Canada, it occurred to me a few years ago to be more nationalistic. In a lot of ways Canada and I are alike haha. We do not discriminate (I try my best not to), we are big with some uninhabited areas (I don't get the connection there but if you do, great), and we are often mocked for being too naive or too good (that's how I want people to mock me haha).

Anyway, about French. Canada is officially bilingual, and in order for me to be nationalistic, I believe I must learn at least the minimum amount of acceptable French. It is not required, but I want to be able to approach any Canadian since some of them are strictly (and rudely, I head) French.

On to a new topic: French with Sir Yu. I wish that had a better ring to it but it doesn't so... 

Aside from the need to learn French more (and the fact that I had no choice), I believe having Sir Yu again would be a rewarding experience. I can't seem to trace the origin of Sir Yu's infamy. It's all hearsay, and we can't always believe in hearsay. Like what my hero, Dr. Garces, told us before haha. You shouldn't judge a professor based on the fact that they are 'terror profs' and I'm sure you've heard enough of this from me already, but I'll just say it one more time for effect. They're never as bad as they seem. If Sir Yu is strict, then fine, I'll do my work on time. If he's unfair, then I'll give him a reason not to be unfair. My fellow AIESECer, introvert, and all-around good person, Panda said something like, if we aren't challenged then we aren't growing (it's something like that, I don't remember all the words haha).

Well, there you have it. The whole French problem I had today. Here's to looking forward to meeting Sir Yu again!

There's nothing else I feel like saying right now. I got the load off my chest with the French thing so... bye!

College Long-Term Bets

(Patterned from HIMYM Lily and Marshall's long-term bets)

Bet #1: Paolo bets Ashley that she will have multiple partners ('multiple partners' is defined simply as more than one, and not necessarily all at once)

Bet #2: Ashley bets Paolo that he will have a partner shorter than himself.

Notes:
- Just to be clear: Bet #1 states that Paolo bets I would have more than one partner, not necessarily at one point. This implies that I believe I will only have one (1) partner.

Nature of the Bets:
- Both Bets have a control factor in which I have control over the outcome of Bet #1 while Paolo has control over Bet #2, thus balancing the two Bets.
- As of now, there is no exchange of money involved in the outcome of these bets. Since the outcomes are dated more 'long-term' than the HIMYM version, the value for the outcome might be significantly higher than normal.

1Y2S Grade My Professors: Post-Test

Now this post is a lot lighter, more me, and extremely relevant to an Atenean. As you can see by the Lux in Domino Ateneo logo over there, this blog is supposed to be 'about' my college life as an Atenean and though the events I have written about down there are technically under the category of 'life as an Atenean' I think the reader deserves a little somethin'-somethin' about Ateneo.

Another thing this post is is overdue. Yes, you've got it right! This IS the Grade My Professors Post! I came up with that title only now, I am contemplating changing the name of the others. I also came up with the idea of the initial grading (the one done in the first week or after a couple of meetings) to be called the Pre-Test, and the final grading (after the semester ends) to be called the Post-Test in honor of The One and only Sir Rogelio Alegrid.

Following the pattern of the previous 2 GMP posts (the Pre-Test for the 2nd semester doesn't exist), it will be as follows:

Official Subject Title
Name of Professor

Background on the subject and professor.

Grade
Recommendation/Suggestions


So here it goes! I hope someday this will help someone make a decision. But if this is your first time reading it, you should know that I tend to defend professors or teachers even though some people call them terrible or terror, with the exception of the infamous Ms. Sarmiento of course. But even with her I probably had more pity that someone like, say, Basilio or Nishi haha. [NA: this is high school stuff, pelase don't confuse Ms. Sarmiento with Ma'am Sarmiento]

Anyway, we're straying...

Bi 5: Biotechnology for Everyone, Lecture
(Dr.?) Charisse Pasaje and Dr. Ronie Calugay

The first thing you need to know is that I chose Biotech over Environmental Science. ES is said to be one of the easiest, if not THE easiest, NatSci subjects ever. But I knew deep down that Biotech was for me, and not ES. Of course, I care a lot about the environment, but as it turns out, I found out more helpful things about the environment than I believe I would have if I had taken ES instead.

Biotech, at least our Biotech, began with the simple stuff, definition, history, significant scientists and their discoveries. And then you move on to cells and go deeper into DNA. The first 1/3 of our Biotech class was taught by Ma'am Pasaje. She was very new to teaching, and so it wasn't a very good learning experience for me. The learning experience was very important in my case because that was the reason I chose Biotech in the first place. I am what you would call a knowledge seeker haha! Learning new things excites me but only if these things can be observed in the real world (ahem Math).

The rest of the subject was handled extremely well by Dr. Ronie Calugay. He is very, very good at what he does. And the best thing about him is that he's fun, and he will make everything easy for you because he understands--I repeat, he UNDERSTANDS--that his subject, considering we were students of the School of Management, wasn't our main focus, but only a subject of appreciation. So he didn't go too in-depth with the science, but he gave us the important and relevant facts in a way that students could understand. He gives out articles he wrote for the Philippine Star (I think) about various biotechnological applications of bacteria. He writes humorously and concisely, two very good combinations especially when taking about such deep and complicated things as science.

The greatest thing about Biotech was the last part, applications, because it showed how everything we studied worked together. You will definitely learn about the Central Dogma of Molecular Biology, and it will give you a deeper understanding of how you are what you are. Also, it taught me a lot about proteins. From what I learned in high school (maybe I learned more but just wasn't paying attention to Bio class) proteins are some sort of building blocks for the body. I always imagined them to be the 'tough stuff' in muscles haha. But proteins apparently determine everything about you: the color of your hair, your eyes, etc. And what makes up proteins are, you guessed it, amino acids.

You'll find out all these things when you take Biotech. But the fun part is the application part where we learned about bacteria such as Agrobacterium tumefaciens, the bacteria that enters plants through its roots; Bacillus thuringiensis, the bacteria that is deadly to insects but not to humans, and is used for crops such as Bt corn, Bt eggplant, etc; Vibrio fischeri, the bacteria that GLOWS on a certain squid; and the most important Botryococcus braunii, which has the potential to produce OIL.

Biotech application comes in when you think of 'scaling up.' The precise definition of Biotechnology is 'the use of organisms or their products to enhance our lives' and so we are inclined to utilize these very ingenious bacteria to work in our favor.

For example, Bacillus thuringiensis is a pesticide, but it doesn't potentially harm us humans who consume crops. The problem is that Bt cannot enter the plant in any way, but Agrobacterium tumefaciens can! The agrobacterium enters the plant through the roots, its real purpose is to put tumors in it, but because of Biotechnology, scientists can locate the gene, the part of the DNA of Bacillus thuringiensis that allows it to kill insects, and TRANFER that gene to Agrobacterium tumefaciens and allow it mulitply and release it into the soil! The agrobacterium then enters the plant and gives it the ability to repel insects. Bt is not harmful to humans, so no worries!

I realize this was a rather long background on the subject for it has really become my favorite subject so far. I learned a hell of a lot. Now I have a deeper understanding of genetics, biotechnology, and its applications. And for that I give the grades thusly:

Grades:  C+ for Ma'am Pasaje, A for Dr. Calugay
I totally recommend Dr. Calugay for anyone. You will not regret taking his class ever. The grades almost don't even matter because (1) his tests are really easy and are based mostly on understanding of the topics, and (2) you'll have so much fun you wouldn't care about grades or anything else. Ma'am Pasaje, on the other hand, I don't think she will continue teaching because she could have just been tasked by Sir Calugay to instruct us on the first 1/3 of the subject. She's nice, very, but unclear in her discussions and sometimes says the wrong thing. But she is approachable and her tests are relatively easy. Dr. Ronie's tests are REALLY easy, just make sure you understand the topic.


Bi 6: Biotechnology for Everyone, Lab
Sir Jeremy Torres

Although I wished we could have done more "cool" stuff like cutting up DNA under the microscope, screening for bacteria (what we did) was probably just as fun, and even more relevant especially for students like us whose main priority is not science anyway.

Like Sir Ronie, Sir Jeremy is very good at getting information across in a way students can understand. I guess that kind of thing improves after many years of teaching. This way, we were able to appreciate and understand what exactly we were doing in the lab. It wasn't just any other experiment, what we were doing was basically what numerous scientists do, only on a much lower level.

We gathered samples of bacteria--just from soil or tap water--and screened for bacteria. The process was the same for each experiment. The only difference was the medium we placed the bacteria on. An important concept in our Biotech lab was the idea of bacteria being able to degrade certain organic or inorganic (in our experiments, only organic) substances. So the pattern usually went like this: there was some harmful organism or substance (pests or pollutants), and you found an enzyme that is responsible for its 'being bad' and create a culture medium with that enzyme. The bacteria, when placed on the medium, will be observed a week later to check if blank spots had appeared. Those blank spots mean the bacteria successfully degraded the enzyme. Scientists can now do further experiments on the bacteria (isolating it more so that it will be one pure culture of bacteria) and eventually develop industrial products that could help the environment or the crops, or whichever was affected.

We also did yogurt. Yogurt is a vital part of the Bi 6 curriculum haha. It was one of the earlier experiments done about fermentation. You learn that in high school so it's not really that interesting. But I did find out that yogurt actually helps lactose intolerant people. Apparently lactase, the enzyme found in yogurt, helps in the digestion of lactose by breaking into simpler sugars.

Grade: A
Sir Jeremy gave me an A when I was expecting a C+. I believed I tanked the final exam, but I guess our experiments and my notebooks were good enough to get me an A. But the reason he gets an A is not because I got one too but because he is a really good teacher. He can answer your questions and tell you what went wrong with your experiment, and he also likes to joke around a little bit. Another good thing about lab is that you usually finish before the time ends (unlike Chem lab) so there's a lot of free time. On the other end as well: our class was scheduled to begin at 7:30 in the morning, but everyone (including Sir Jeremy) arrived at around 8 anyway. So we were really only in the lab for maybe 45 minutes.


Ma 21: Mathematical Analysis I
Ma'am Jumela Sarmiento

Ma 21 is all, and I mean ALL about Calculus. Which, of course, makes sense because Ma 18 a/b was Pre-Calculus. In retrospect, nothing about Ma 21 was or should have been hard. The lessons were understandable, relatively easy, and didn't require that much work. But those are the lessons. The only reason any ME student has a hard time with Math is the fact that the long tests given by the professors are insanely on another level.

This, I believe, is the reason why Math by ME's will eventually be forgotten by the time they reach 4th year, the exemption of course being the really smart Math geniuses out there. But for the layman, it's simply 'something we need to pass'. It will forever be that way for me, because as I mentioned earlier, my thirst for knowledge is solely for something that you can observe out in the real world, something I can use, I can talk about, something I can teach to others. Math just doesn't have that. I know they all say that Math is in everything we do, but if I don't see a reason to find the volume of an object without just using measuring tools that have already been invented to do that specific purpose, then I will never fully appreciate Math as a subject.

What I can appreciate it for, however, is as a learning tool. Our Math is designed to make a student think, and think hard. They will never just let you get the answer, you need to earn it. It's not a straight road, but one that starts at a single point, and branches out into many directions with only a few actually reaching the destination.

Grade: B+
They say T4 (my block, if you remember) had been blessed with Ma'am Sarmiento (Mama Jums). It was a great relief from our previous professor, Dr. Ian Garces. And yes, I agree she was. She didn't twist the questions or make us think as much as Dr. Garces did, but don't get me wrong, her tests were not easy either.

The best thing about Ma'am Sarmiento is that she gives a buttload of examples that really encompass everything that she might ask during the long tests. The worst thing about her is that she takes up a lot of time doing so. She asks for volunteers to answer ungraded homework, so she spends a lot of the time sitting down and letting the students explain. This is both good and bad, good because yeah the students learn, and bad because the answer might not always be correct but if she sees that the process is done correctly she would think that it was correct. She doesn't answer the homework, I think, that's why she wouldn't know. And it's also bad because it takes a lot of time, especially when no one is volunteering because no one got the answer. When no one gets the answer she mostly doesn't explain it anymore (whether intentionally or not, I dunno), but when the students ask she will answer it.


En 12: Communication in English II
Sir Roy Agustin

Ahhh, English. A beloved subject I will sorely miss. English 12 is all about research paper writing and argument building for about 4/5 of the semester (this actually depends on the prof, but this was how Sir Roy did it). The rest is reflection and seminar papers.

You will spend a hell of a lot of time with Sir Roy discussing things like writing bibliographies, knowing which sources are good and which are not, how to avoid plagiarism, how to quote, when to quote and when to paraphrase, etc. etc. But knowing Sir Roy, each of those discussions will take an entire class's worth of time because of his many wonderful 'lectures' about anything that pops into his head.

En 12 is important because research paper writing will be done until 4th year. So it's essential to know everything about it as early as now so that you won't forget. They give you a book, anyway, to use for consulting whenever you want to. This part is pretty self-explanatory, and I cannot do better to help you understand it so I'll be moving on.

The seminar paper comes immediately after the research paper because this is the paper that sort of reviews one of your classmate's research paper. I don't get the relevance of this, because while Sir Roy was discussing the seminar paper not much of us were listening. It was a hot and lazy day. None of us had any idea how to write it haha. Was it a review? Was it a counter-argument? In the end we just did our own thing.

The reflection paper actually took a long time. Sir Roy gave us plenty of fun exercises in class to try to understand ourselves better. They were incredibly fun and had us laughing in tears. Those were some of the best times we'd had in English.

Grade: A
We had Sir Roy for 2 semesters of English, which was a better deal than most got. He decided to stick with us because he had already established a rapport with us and didn't want to break it. As usual, our class took that as an "awwww you love us, sir!" moment.

In many ways, Sir Roy is not the perfect professor. His deadlines are never solid, that's actually a good thing but isn't when you're considering he is a professor, and when you're on the receiving end. He takes way too long talking about one thing that he ends up not being able to discuss the rest, again this is not really a bad thing because his talks are really interesting anyway.

Sir Roy IS an awesome professor. I've said it before: he's the very definition of a 'cool prof'.


Lit 14: Introduction to Poetry and Drama
Ma'am Irene Benitez

Lit 14, essentially, is not all that different from Lit 13. In fact, it may be easier than studying fiction. Aside from the elements, which are not that many and not all found in every poem, poetry does not require as much theoretical studying as fiction. The difficulty in studying and analyzing poetry is relative. One may be completely adept at finding images and coming up with shrew interpretations for a poet's work, while others may not see the purpose of poetry and therefore have no skill in deciphering the messages behind the text.

Wondering, then, why literature is one of the core subjects of my first year in Ateneo, I often did so already knowing the answer. Of course--as usual--what else did I expect? As it is with Math, the subject does not expect us to read and interpret poems on a daily basis. What we, the students, get out of this subject is critical thinking; coming up with reasonable answers based on evidence (and often conjecture). Every lit prof (maybe) mentions at the beginning of the term or when discussing the final exam that yes, literature has many interpretations. But what they are grading is our ability to come up with answers based on, like I said, textual evidence found in poems, dramas, novels.

Finding the reason why a certain word was used to describe a certain something, something to that effect, is always at the risk of what they call 'over-reading.' Sometimes, you can find an answer that seems to be the perfect answer – a complex, brilliant, mastermind of a story –but then discover that your answer is a couple of levels before this brilliant one of yours. That was one of my major blocks with this class. Often, I shoot past the answer because, to me, it already seemed obvious. It was a given that this girl felt that way, or that the reason she said this was because of this. But what is obvious to me should still be written down, apparently. Or perhaps it is because we see so much of it on TV, in movies, in modern literature that we never really bother with it. Yes, we all know the story of the lovers who cannot be together, or the lovers who will SO end up together but are refusing to believe it, all because it's been done before. So when I saw that in the text, I thought it was rather irrelevant to have to discuss that in SO MUCH detail, finding proof in the characters' actions and speech.

Literature, despite my claim that I love to read, is not my thing. I think it could be, because I sometimes enjoy observing details and wondering why they were placed there. But deep down, I always get this sense of pretentiousness whenever I hear the word 'literature' because it's an art usually associated with the upper class. I enjoy the critical thinking part of the subject, but honestly, with all my subjects revolving around critical thinking, I'm not sure if I'd need it.

Grade: B+
A lot of my classmates dislike Ma'am Irene. It's probably because she's a little demanding, bossy, loud, and according to others, doesn't take your interpretations into consideration as much as she does her own. I actually thought that she was pretty good. She knew what she was doing; she knew how to teach a class. Her coursework was not at all difficult and, despite what many say, it's not "too much." It's hard to get a good grade from her because like I mentioned, she sticks to her own interpretations. BUT that is not the reason we don't get high grades. She looks for consistency in your work, which is okay because that is crucial when making interpretations. She's willing to help you and give you advice when you ask for it so there really should be no problem. The reason I didn't give her an A is probably the same reason she does not. There are inconsistencies. Sometimes I feel like I'm having a great lesson, one that is worth learning and relevant. Other times, I feel like I'm back in high school having a slightly hassling activity that has no meaning.

Fil 12: Sining ng... oh, please don't make me write it again. Just check the old one.
Ma'am Kristine Romero

Fil 12 is the equivalent of En 12. Or so I think. At least, the final project is a research paper. Our final project, however, was a compilation of essays (with topics that required extensive research) about anything Pinoy. My group came up with the idea of a Pinoy Primer (the actual title of our group's book, copying this would be plagiarism, sorry) and the two essays that I wrote about were of Philippine food and the culture of the OFWs. But that's not important.

I always feared the subject of Filipino. Having never been good at it, I always imagined myself desperately clinging to a C or a C+. The summer before school started, I was convinced Filipino was what would get me my first D. As you all know, or perhaps not, I am only allowed one D in my entire stay at the Ateneo. Unless the SMEG thing is still applicable but rumors have gone around that it is not, though I have not received official announcement from anyone. But to be fair, the SMEG in itself is not an official Ateneo term.

Anyway, Fil 12 (at least ours) began with a lesson in grammar and spelling. Oh, you know, the differences between "ng" and "nang," "subukan" and "subukin" etc. And then we moved on to MLA footnoting, which was fun and got a lot of us easy A's or B's on her quizzes/seatworks. After that we began reading essays from an actual book of essays called... hang on, I can't remember. Wow, this is not good. I've only been away from school for a month, how can I not remember? I keep thinking Buklod, but that was in high school... does it start with a T? I know the author is Alvin Yapan... hang on. It's one word, wait for it... it starts with a B? Burador, dammit. I had to check.

Anyway, the stories/essays on that book are actually really nice. To be honest, I always liked the stories in Filipino class (including high school ones) because they were relatable, short, and meaningful. They were also humorous. In fact, of all the stories we read last semester, my least favorite was the one written by a foreigner... hmmm, Dutch, if I'm not mistaken. The essays, along with the lessons on grammar, somehow teach you to be better at writing in Filipino. I really doubt this happened to me, but then again, I'm not my teacher. The only reason I have to think that I did improve in writing was the fact that I got a... drumroll please... B+! That is quite possibly the proudest moment of my Filipino career. A B+ at a college level Filipino subject. Of course, it could be due largely to the fact that seatworks and quizzes are easy enough, or that she curves grades, but still!

Grade: A
I gave Ma'am Romero an A not because she gave me a B+, but because she exhibits all the qualities of a good professor. First of all, she is fair. We've heard of terrible profs who give pop quizzes on a whim, or profs who give students a lot of work to do. She is fair, so there's only a quiz when she says there's a quiz. She gives unannounced ones, too, but they're usually after the discussion. Our Fil schedule was twice a week for an hour and a half, and even with that she only gave us one or two readings. All in all she's a good teacher: approachable, organized, meaningful lessons.

PE 108: Lawn Tennis
Ma'am Rodil

I chose tennis because I had recently begun a tennis phase, which started last summer during the French Open season. Actually, I had been a slight tennis fan since I was a kid, but I lacked enthusiasm from my friends. Meaning to say, I could be interested in tennis if someone was there to be interested in it with me. So what rekindled my interest was exactly that: my best friend Paolo getting interested in tennis.

I remember in 3rd grade when our PE teacher went around the class one by one taking note of each student's favorite sport. The only sport I had played (then) was golf and tennis. Both because of my dad. I chose tennis instead because that was what I believed I was better at. Paolo, for lack of any interest in sports (then), copied me and chose tennis as well. Amidst the popular choices of basketball, volleyball, and badminton, our teacher looked up in surprised and called us sosyal, Filipino slang for being classy or wealthy--which, for the record, I am neither, but Paolo is haha. Up to now, I'm still not sure whether our PE teacher meant that in an insulting way or it was just a casual observation.

When I saw that lawn tennis had a lot of open slots during enlistment, I immediately grabbed at the 7AM one. I hoped it wouldn't be too hot, but at least it would never be as hot as the 9AM one. But what really excited me about this class was the fact that I had 3 of my high school classmates in the same class. This was great because we were already matched in pairs.

Lawn tennis begins with a fat load of ball control drills which in hindsight really ARE the foundations of tennis... somehow. After ball control, you and your partner do more drills involving hitting the ball towards each other (but from only about a few meters away) using combinations of forehand and backhand. After that, we moved on to the real court where we did pretty much the same thing. And finally, the lesson I had been waiting all my life for: the service.

I first started playing tennis when I was little kid, probably around 5-7 years old (I saw pictures, I was really small). Of course, my dad and eldest brother wouldn't do an actual serve against a child, so they just did a forehand, and so did I. The long gap between then and last year was bridged rather hastily with my getting into tennis by watching the pros on various sports channels and YouTube. So my primary goal of learning to serve the way professional tennis players do was doomed to fail. I hadn't really thought about doing the very basics of serving, merely getting the ball into the service box. I practiced doing it the powerful, hard-hitting, smashing way I saw on TV. Needless to say almost all (except one mwaha!) smashed right into the net.

After learning how to serve slowly but accurately (though it probably didn't show in my practical test results--having someone with a clipboard watch you serve is not fun), I felt completely ready to play an entire match of tennis. However, I have never picked up a racquet since my last PE class. Here's to hoping that I someday will.

Grade: A
The mere fact that I got better in tennis proves that Ms. Rodil is an excellent instructor. If only I could, I would train with her, or with anyone for that matter. Tennis is a sport I hoped to be good at, and Ms. Rodil helped a lot.


Well, those are all of my professors. Again, I would like to say that I do this in the hopes that someday, a bright-eyed, eager student would chance upon my blog via Google search, hoping to get insights and advice on their soon-to-be professors. I realize now that I may not have given as much tips as I should have, but then again, I am not your usual student. I have mentioned previously that I often take the side of the professor, and therefore I can only give you this piece of advice, which I find useful since so far most of my professors have treated me well:

Respect is the probably the most important value a student must have; heck any person must have it. Being polite and respectful toward your teacher can never go wrong. Showing effort is also tied to this because respecting your professor involves actually listening intently to their discussions. Professors (at least most of them) discuss facing the students, and looking at their faces one by one. I noticed that the more engaged you are in the discussion, your professor will glance at you more often than the rest. This is just my theory but I believe it is because in you (the engaged student), the professor feels more confident, and more willing to continue the discussion especially to you, which is why it is like you're being given a personal lecture.

This is important because getting a good 'class participation' grade is all about perception. If you appear interested and engrossed in the lesson, even though you have no idea what the crap the professor is saying, he or she will still notice that you are paying attention. This often happens to me in Fil class. It is also a part of my theory that because the professor notices that you are paying attention and all that, mistakes in your work could be attributed to a lack of understanding. The next best step to do (for the student) would then be to ask, after receiving the paper, how to answer the problem. Which leads me to my next tip:

Ask questions. I confess I rarely ask questions. I am an extremely shy student and can only ask questions when (1) I am in the mood, or (2) when I have absolutely no other choice but to ask. I believe that asking questions fuels the same impression that the aforementioned respect gives to the professor: that you are hard-working. Hard-work is an essential trait for those who wish to succeed in life. The professors know that. And the idea of 'effort points' come to mind. It is also in my belief that professors do not grade the same way high school teachers do, following a strict criteria. The myth of the terror professor is that he or she can give you an F just because of a strong feeling of dislike towards a student. Therefore, perception is the key to overcoming this danger. If the professor likes you, or at least thinks you aren't a slob who doesn't give a damn about school or life or grades, then you are guaranteed a non-failing grade.

Of course, that goes without saying, you have to EARN your grade. You could be the kindest person in class but if you're failing, you're failing. If you're extra nice maybe, just maybe, your professor can work something out. But I have NEVER experienced anything like that before so I'm convinced that your chances are slim.

If you had read my post a few months back about people saying I had to study hard in college, and cramming wasn't gonna cut it, with a 'challenge accepted' meme, you will want proof of consistencies in my claim that I don't study because frankly, that is not good advice for any bright-eyes, eager student. As mentioned in that post, my ability to NOT study comes from my educational background and my lack of discipline.

My tip, therefore, on how to survive college without being a super genius and without having to study as hard is this: philosophy. Learn to love wisdom. Learn to love to learn. Studying, the reason I hate it is because it's cold and empty. It means studying to get good grades and graduate. I urge you to develop an enjoyment for learning new things, filling up your brain with random facts. Treat your lessons as you would treat story books, television shows, movies, or anime! Engross yourself in what you are learning, and don't focus on what could appear on the test. Live your lessons, incorporate it into your life.

I also realize that this could be difficult for a subject you really have no interest in. Like me and literature, but then again you don't really "study" for Lit... Oh, okay, me and Chemistry back in first sem. I thought I would like chemistry because I thought we'd be studying about the chemical composition of things and how we can make something cool out of something else. But I lost interest when we studied the angles between atoms, their positions, the forces between them. Like I said before, I am interested in the tangible lessons, the ones I can see in the real world. I couldn't connect with the atoms, so I wasn't all that interested in them. Unlike Biotechnology where my reason for taking the subject was to learn something new, and learn I did! Although Biotech did deal with microorganism that I cannot see either, the applications of these microorganisms had a tangible effect on the environment. And with the knowledge that I learned from Biotech, I have an understanding of how scientists work to cure diseases, etc. In Chemistry, I learned that... compounds have shape.

There are also times when you want to like a subject, or you really do, but it just doesn't sit well with you. Like Math for me. After reading Dr. Queena Lee-Chua's book, Eureka, Math was a wonderful world of numbers and cleverness. The problem with it, however, was that I'm not good at Math, despite what my dad thinks. My brain doesn't work the way a mathematician's brain does. My thoughts are perpetually disorganized – as is my work, you can check my long test papers if you want. This is a huge disappointment for me, because of the realization that the brilliant things Math can do, I cannot access. It's a membership-only kind of club. This feeling is strong enough to extinguish my so-called love for learning. It's true. My love for learning Math has been extinguished. Prior to experiencing hardships in Math, I would have loved to read about those theories: chaos theory... game theory... but all is lost knowing I wouldn't understand a thing.

This tip, to love learning and engross yourself in the lesson, is probably more suitable for someone like me with a tangled mess of a mind, and a thirst for holistic knowledge. By the way, this is all just a theory. I have yet to encounter classes beyond the simple Math, English, Science classes I have had in my first year. We will find out together if this same theory works on Psych, Philo, Theo, and most especially, Accounting and my other Management Engineering subjects.

Here's to the future of learning, and graduating. Because, though I love to learn, my love to earn is far greater. But that story is for another day, another post. Good night!

An Addition to 'Why I Write' and a Prelude to Something

I haven't posted anything in over 2 months. For once, I cannot attribute that to writers' block because I do have a lot of things in mind to write about actually. The only problem is that I couldn't bring myself to transfer them from my mind to my blog. I began to wonder why I write this blog anyway. If it is to record my college life, why is that important? 

My reflection paper for EN12 was entitled 'Why I Write'. The title obviously taken from George Orwell's essay of the same name (obvious to my EnLit classmates but probably not to others) we read in class. After rushing through my soul-searching and reflecting, I came up with the notion that the reason I write is to express myself. That is obvious to everyone now because of my occupation as an amateur blogger. But I needed to look even further in the past to get to the main reason why I write.

The answer, I found, was because of my childhood reading. I will avoid writing the vivid details of my imagination running wild as I buried myself in children's book of fantasy. You can read that in my paper. I will give you the gist, though. Reading pulled me out of the real world, and I experienced adventures I couldn't have normally. The beauty of reading is found in the way it affects the readers.

My love for reading prompted me to try to create something that could be read, not necessarily by me. Think of my writing as a way of paying back everything I had read. To create something with as much magic as my books. But unfortunately, I turned out not to be such a good writer. The influence of the books I had already read had affected how I wrote. Everything became sort of a copyright infringement. I was very young then, but I knew it wouldn't work out. So I gave up writing for a while.

When I got older and school got more interesting, I began to write about my classmates, putting them in weird, fantastical adventures. My passion (I really don't like using that word, it makes it sound fake) for writing was rekindled! I had also branched out and began drawing. Eventually, it came to the creation of the Weird Bunch and their Misadventures. I found it easier to write half-truths, stories that were based on real events or real people but given a magical (more often crazy or weird) twist. 

So how did I get to writing as a form of expression? Writing always has been a form of expression, so you could say that that basically trumps all of my past reasons for writing. But behind the idea 'expressing myself,' you have to understand that I chose such reason to emphasize the fact that I can't express myself (or at least not nearly as good) otherwise, in other words, it's hard for me to express myself verbally. But again, what does this have to do with why I write this blog? Why do I need to express myself anyway, and to whom? 

I came up with the answer just now. I'm expressing myself to no one other than myself! That's why I don't publicize my blog, it's not meant for others to read. Yes, one day I when I'm working and taking over the world (what?) I will be reading this but not only for the memories. Since this blog is the expression of my self, I will be introducing myself to my future self! Maybe, just maybe, when I'm older I can have a deeper understanding of all these random events, and see how they may have affected who I am--who I WILL BE in the future. 

Blogs are useful because it is a place where you can just vent. Rant. Reflect. Reason out. You write down thoughts that you might not remember years from now. Of course, you can do that in other ways, too, but for someone like me, who loves to read and loves to write (it doesn't love me back, though) this is the best way I can think of: writing.

So the question is now why I wrote this particular post. Why write about why I write? I mentioned it in the first paragraph. I haven't written in a while, but not for lack of topics. I had one, huge event that shook my life like a ruthless earthquake, but I didn't write about it, rather I couldn't. I couldn't express what I wanted to express anymore, I couldn't write. 

The event I am referring to would be the time I found out my best friend Harvey moved back to Korea. This won't be the post I pour everything out, don't worry. This is probably the first step, though. I think it is a testament of our friendship, or what he meant to me, that I wasn't able to write about it. I've experienced quite a few shocking events, but none stopped me from writing about it. Of course, I can't compare them to Harvey's leaving. 

Ironically, when I most needed to vent, rant, reflect, reason out, express myself, I couldn't. We're talking about a friendship this time. It is an entire blog in itself. I couldn't list down every memory we had and lay it out, that would take forever. And back then (two months ago) even the lamest, corniest, or most boring memory was hard to face.

This will not be the post where I talk about how much Harvey's leaving affected his friends. That post will, for now, just be a white, unfilled box and its blinking insertion point.