I was not really on my best mood yesterday. After acting (badly) in a production of a broadcast class, I hurried off to Engineering to take our final exams in Eng’g Sci 10, which surprisingly was an all-essay 100-point exam. Sigh. Too bad for me. I don’t know why I felt lonely and sad yesterday. Probably a culmination of all the stress among other things.

After the Eng’g exam, I walked slowly back to Mass Comm, dropped off some things and then went with Con and Sarah, who wanted to walk all the way to Sunken Garden to talk. I just wanted to walk tho’, nakibuntot lang ako sa kanila. Walking is therapeutic. But then sometimes it can amplify some feelings of loneliness.

I went back to Mass Comm around 5:30. On my way, I received a call from Gino (blockmate) who was asking if I could (temporarily) shell out 1,500 for the rental of some lights from Cineforce for our Film 112 production (na hindi na natapos-tapos). It didn’t help that I was feeling sad. I felt like that ‘yun lang ako, takbuhan ‘pag kailangan may mag-abono. Anyway, AD, Kid, Chesa and Patti were at the CAST tambayan. Hung out for a while then we all had dinner at KNL.

I didn’t know how to react when Ica told me that we have to reshoot several scenes because of several unforseen mistakes in some shots. Sigh. I don’t know what to say. I understand that we can’t just pass the short film with those mediocre shots and those glaring mistakes. I just really want this tedious Film 112 production to be finished. We all do, I guess. It has become too taxing for a 112 production. At the back of my head, I keep thinking, “Gee, this is just Film 112, not Film 200.” My other blockmates who are in another class finished their individual short videos in a day or two. A while ago, Ice dragged me from the tambayan and asked me to act in her Film 112 video, which she was due tomorrow. She finished shooting in a matter of hours. Anyway, sinimulan na rin naman naming karirin, we better do finish it well.

Onto other academic requirements. We’re done with Comm 100. I finished off with a 2.0. I’m content with that. I was expecting a lower grade, actually. Geog 1 is done too, we just have to submit a final concept map by next week. Eng’g Sci 10 and Bio 1 are almost done, I just have to take the final exams this week. Finally, for Film 102, I’m supposed to submit a final paper about the Mano Po movies by next week, but I haven’t started writing it. The books I borrowed from the library about Chinese Filipinos are already overdue. I still need to see Mano Po 3. Ugh. Like everyone else, I can’t wait to get over and done with all of these. Sembreak’s just a week away…

I slept for 12 hours last night. Yesterday was supposed to be our last shooting day for our Film 112 production. No, it wasn’t. We still have to shoot a few more scenes on Monday morning. Sigh. We seriously have to learn how to work more efficiently. And hopefully with much less bad luck.

I’ve obviously been busy the past two weeks. Sigh. Just a little more than a week left before the semester ends. I can’t wait.

Most of my attention these past days were channeled to our Film 112 production. Our Film 112 shoots have been really stressful. This is supposed to be just an introductory course on film production, but it feels like we’re already doing a thesis short film, albeit as an entire class of hapless sophomores. We were required to do a sci-fi short film, so the production design aspect was relatively difficult. We had to rent a chroma screen and construct a pseudo-bronze room. Plus all those weird costumes and make-up. Post-prod might prove to be difficult too, with the CGs we need. Sigh.

Anyway, our first ‘formal’ shoot was last Sunday. We started off at 7AM in Joma’s place for the office scenes. I had to act like a 20+ year-old lawyer playing know-it-all with the devil. At 3PM, we set-up at the Barn in Katipunan where we shot the restaurant scenes. By 7PM, we were at Ino’s place shooting the bronze room scenes. By that time, we were all stressed out. We were three hours behind schedule. Aside from a myriad of minor misfortunes, one of our redheads suddenly died out on us. I was personally so drained that I didn’t need to really act with the last scenes. If I were weaker, I could’ve passed out on all the second-hand cigarette smoke I had to inhale the entire day while acting with the devil. I was so tired, the tears of frustration were real. We finished off by midnight.

By Monday, I had to drag myself to attend my classes. I also finally got to shave my facial hair off. We’ve done shooting the scenes were I’m supposed to be 20+ years old. I’m back to my original look.

Tuesday was another formal shooting day. We reserved a classroom at CMC and spent six hours shooting some classroom scenes, which should’ve been shot in three hours if everything turned out as planned. I was also on a bad mood that day. Lack of sleep. Personal reasons. Scenes took a lot of takes before we finally got them right. Hay, basta by the end of the day, I just had to break down. Also an offshoot of the tiresome Sunday shoot.

Aside from the ‘formal’ shooting days, I also had to be present on the informal shooting days (Wednesday and Thursday last week, last Saturday, and today) when we had to shoot some filler scenes for a montage. I had to smoke too, when I needed to act like an unemployed tambay. Nahilo ako noon. I dislike smoking.

We still have another day of shooting tomorrow. It’s the last one. I hope it won’t take us as much time as before. I still need the energy to accomplish all my other academic requirements.

I’ve just been talking about myself here. My Film 112 classmates surely have their own narrations of how frustrating and stressful this production has been. I hope everything turns out all right. I hope we all get an uno from Sir Jamon. Hehehe.

I accidentally deleted the theme/template bikoy.net was using. The theme is not anymore available for download and I don’t have a copy in my computer so now… this is how the domain will look like. I’ll try to fix this as soon as I can but I’m really busy this weekend, with our Film 112 shoot and all. Sigh. ‘Til then…

The family had lunch at Gloria Mari’s last Saturday afternoon with my parents’ godparents.

After the hearty feast, we went home and I briskly prepped up for our social dance culminating activity at Aldaba Hall a few hours later. I went to school early. My partner and I practiced a little at the Bahay ng Alumni before we crossed the street to Aldaba Hall. A lot of our classmates were already there by 4PM.

The venue looked like a run-down warehouse, a dilapidated dance studio. There were even bats flying around at night. Yes, inside the hall. Haha.

Anyway, my partner and I didn’t even advance from the elimination part. It’s all right with me, except that I felt like Carol, my partner, was really disappointed. She insisted she wasn’t because she wasn’t expecting anything in the first place. But I think she’s just saying that. So yeah, I sort of felt bad about our not being part of the top half who advanced into the final round.

I wouldn’t have to attend social dance classes anymore as a reward for joining the competition. That just freed up my 10-11 AM slot for the rest of September. In retrospect I would say that Social Dance is a worthwile PE class to take. Social dance is fun.

After the event, Deo and I went to Philcoa and met up with AD, Kid and Ate Emel. We all took a cab to Ate Armi’s place for a small gathering for her and Ate Emel’s birthdays.

I kept committing mistakes at social dance practice this morning. I think I disappoint my partner a lot. I feel bad. She was annoyed at me.

Anyway, after PE, I went to Jollibee along Katipunan to meet Joan who had to give me something. Lovely, Justine and Mickael were also there. I had lunch with them before going to my Film 102 class at 1PM.

My Film 102 group presented our Mike de Leon report yesterday afternoon. I didn’t realize how stupid we looked in the video supplement. It was hilarious. I also had to dress up as a pseudo-Rizal for some sort of a live role-playing thing (in reference to Mike de Leon’s Bayaning Third World).

Anyway, I just hung out with CAST people after class at the tambayan. After an hour, we moved to Molave. Went home around half-past six.

I’m beginning to dislike my mustache now. Still nine days before I shave everything off.

I like it when I’m relatively busy. Busy but not too busy. It keeps me from getting too bored with a monotonous academic routine.

We presented our report on the population debate in the Philippines for Geography 1 class last Monday. For PE, my partner and I are just rehearsing our steps for the social dance ‘competition’ tomorrow. For Film 112, my groupmates and I are [still] planning and polishing out details for our shoot in the next weeks. For Film 102, we would be presenting a report on Mike de Leon this afternoon. Last Wednesday, we were shooting some spoofs of his movies for our supplementary video. That was crazy. Last Wednesday afternoon, Brent and I went to our Eng’g Sci 10 groupmate’s condo unit in Katipunan to do our toothpick bridge assignment. At first, it was mind-boggling. How can you build a two-feet long bridge out of toothpicks and glue alone? It has to be able to support weights of 1kg and above. We eventually thought of making a triangular bridge full of trusses to maximize compressive forces. (Haha, I barely understood what I just said).