I’ll be back by the new year.

I miss simply bumming at home. For the past few days of my Christmas break, I’ve been helping out in our grocery store in Sta. Maria by manning the cash register, wiping shelves, and the most tedious job of all, encoding all the store’s merchandise in a barcode database manually. When I say manually, I mean manually encoding each merchandise’s 13-digit bar code by copying the digits from every item’s packaging then entering it (together with the item’s description and its price) into a computer program barcode system thingum. I’m doing it manually because we don’t have a USB-serial connector yet so I can’t use the barcode sensor gun thing for now. Gaad, I’m not even halfway through. I can’t even import the Excel worsheet of the inventory I encoded a few days ago, so I started doing this barcode database from scratch. My brother and I are taking shifts encoding though.

Oh well, I’ll ask for a day off one day. I still have some school work, internet surfing and DVD watching to catch up on. Hehe.

Prepare yourself for another picture-heavy entry make-up post.

BAGONG TINDAHAN. My parents’ grocery store was officially opened last Thursday. Prior to that, I’ve been helping my mom (who’s managing the store) out by encoding the store’s inventory and all that, making Excel worksheets for daily grosses and such. Not that it’s anything new–I used to keep inventories and sales worksheets of my merchandise in my Neopets shop. (Pathetic and dorky, I know). I’m also trying to learn how to use the cash register, just in case. It looks like I’ll have to spend most of my free time helping out in the store, which is in Bulacan, instead of… surfing the internet like I used to do.

CAST APPS PRODUCTION DEFENSE. The UP CAST applicants presented their group productions to the members last Wednesday. We may have not admitted it, but I think their productions are so much better than the prods we presented when we were applicants. This batch of applicants is a talented bunch, really.

After the prod defense, the members had a final general meeting before the applicants’ final rites and induction that Friday. Tupe, Kid, Patti, Kay and I stayed in UP after the meeting. Roamed around the Acad Oval tiangge/exhibits, then had dinner.

LANTERN PARADE ETC. No more classes for me starting last Thursday. From Bulacan (for the opening of the grocery store), I went to UP in the afternoon for the Lantern Parade. This year’s Lantern Parade was somewhat disappointing, at least for me. Mass Comm didn’t even have a lantern/float nor a presentation. When our college was called in the staging area at Quezon Hall, we just… screamed. Really sad, but funny. We didn’t even get to parade around the Acad Oval because of the sunduan system this year (our college booth was just a few meters from Quezon Hall).

It was supposed to be some sort of a austerity measure by the university administration. There was no lantern and preformance competition. (Although some colleges still prepared their floats/lanterns and some performances). The mood was much more festive last year. Not everything was a disappointment though. The lanterns from the College of Fine Arts are, as always, impressive. The fireworks display after the parade was also grand. I spent my time with my MCO and CAST friends, and they are, as always, a jolly group to be with.

The executive board (me included, as publicity director) of UP MCO was supposed to have dinner that night at Chocolate Kiss with our adviser, but it didn’t push through. We just proceeded to Jollibee for dinner. I met up with AD, Eric, Kay and Kid after dinner. We all slept over at AD’s place. We were supposed to attend simbang gabi the following morning before the applicants’ final rites of UP CAST in Antipolo, but we didn’t wake up early enough.

UP CAST APPS FINAL RITES, INDUCTION, CHRISTMAS PARTY. For the first time in two years, the applicants’ final rites wasn’t held in Lagro! Wohoo! This sem, it was held at some resort in Antipolo.

As usual, I won’t post any specific details of the final rites stuff or pictures of the applicants. Congratulations, Batch Sinilang! Welcome to UP CAST!!

UP CAST Christmas party right after the induction. Night swimming, inuman, videoke, and the works. There were some bad trip parts, as some people got really really annoying. I was supposed to go home that night but I pleaded to my mom to allow me to sleep over, and she conceded. Went home the next morning.

I haven’t blogged for some time now. I’m on Christmas break from school already. What’s been happening the past few days? Hm… org Christmas parties, org applicants’ acquaintance party, org applicants’ final rites, Lantern Parade, a sleepover, helping my mom in out newly-opened grocery store, and some other things I (intentionally or otherwise) forget right now… Anyway, before my blog backlog grows larger, I’ll start chronicling right now.

Last last Friday (December 9), UP MCO had an acquaintance party for its applicants and its members. It was held at the Vinzons activity room. (That was where I left my digital camera’s charger. I eventually retrieved it from one of the maintenance people a few days after.) There were games and other activities. It was a good chance for me to familiarize myself with another batch of prospective members, at least by face.

Last Tuesday (December 13), I joined some game show in DZUP (UP’s radio station) with some of my orgmates in UP CAST. I didn’t realize that we had to go against UP MCO, which is also an org of mine! Arggh, I hated the feeling. I wanted to walk out just to play fair. I eventually just stayed with my CAST orgmates. My MCO orgmates won anyway. They were playing ‘dissapointed-at-me’ for a while, which upset me a little. Hehe.

Went to UP MCO’s christmas party that night too. It was held at Eka’s house in lower Antipolo. Gaad, MCO is such a loud, noisy and fun org. That night was also the first time I experienced an inuman with MCO, which is something, because we’ve always had a shared perception in MCO that our org is a really wholesome-fun org. We never had inuman and all that. Hehe. My mother wanted me home before midnight though, so I had to leave early.

In an internet shop right now at the Shopping Center. I just came from our Socio 10 class. Just wasting my time since I’m too lazy to go home. I’ll spend some time at the library later and study for my Comm 140 exam tomorrow. I don’t study well when I’m in my room.

Anyway, we were shown some anti-WTO videos in Socio 10 class in lieu of this week’s upcoming WTO Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, which is a coincidence because the last article I read off the internet before I left for school was an article about the fight of local fishermen against some NAMA agreement in the WTO. We just have to be vigilant I guess, as to how our permanent representative to the WTO will negotiate with the bullies. Wait, no negotiations pala dapat. A no deal is better than a bad deal, or something like that. Anyway, I would have to read more about these sort of issues. Wala lang, out of plain social concern kuno.

Oh, by the way. The Academic Oval is closed for this week. How disorienting. All the jeepney routes have changed. Traffic is also severe. I approached one of them special service brigade people roaming around the acad oval and asked why the oval was closed off to vehicles. The chancellor apparently ordered the oval closed to give way to some Christmas bazaar. The oval has been transformed into a tiangge circuit. And it will last for a week. Wow, talk about giving in to the demands of commerce and profit to the inconvenience of the students and other members of the UP community! How… infuriating? Appears to be something like the WTO situation. So… welcome to the University of Tiangge!

[POST-SCRIPT. Dec. 13, 2005, 07:02] Okay, it’s not as bad as I thought. Here’s more information about the Christmas bazaar around the Academic Oval.

Nouveau Riche University - Learn more about the Curriculum Advisory Board Members at Nouveau Riche University

It’s a quarter before five AM. I’m cramming my Socio 10 think piece. Nothing new with that (with cramming, I mean).

I haven’t been too game to write an entry the past days because I keep thinking of my digital camera charger. I left it at Vinzon’s Hall when MCO held its members-applicants acquaintance party last Friday night. Pictures taken by my digital camera are essential elements of my blog entries. That’s why I feel like I don’t blog enough when I don’t have pictures to show. That’s why I haven’t been too enthusiastic to chronicle or to blog anything. Anyhow, I hope someone who left the place later than me took the charger home and would give it back today.

Good morning.

Nothing has been happening out of my daily academic routine.

I still haven’t been going home early, right after school. Last Tuesday, after the UP CAST symposium on music video production, some of us headed to Mang Jimmy’s for dinner. It’s been more than a year since I’ve last been there! That was still during the time UP MCO was block handling us film freshmen. After that, we dropped by STAND-UP’s screening of some short films at the Sunken Garden. Then, we went to Shakey’s for ice cream and mojos.

Wednesday was a nice day. A very nice day. Thursday didn’t start out fine, got worse, but got better in the end. Hmm. What the hell am I talking about.

Ang lamig na ng panahon. Sigh. I love it.

Went to school for some amazing race sort of activity for the CAST applicants. Things didn’t start on time, as usual. The apps got really tired, but I think they enjoyed running all around UP. The course? From CMC to Shopping Center, then to the Oblation, then to the Faculty Center, then to the Math Bldg., then to the Educ side of the Sunken Garden, then to the Law side of the Sunken Garden, then back to CMC. They were only allowed to ride the jeepney twice. I wanted to join the race myself, but… I’m not an applicant.

Went to Gateway with my applicant buddy, Chad, to have our buddy-date. Kid tagged along. We watched Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. I wasn’t able to watch it when it was screened at Cine Adarna a few months ago.