“Reming” was supposed to have to hit Metro Manila between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday, prompting officials to suspend classes this Thursday. [Inq7.net] [empasis mine]

Huh? I don’t see the logic there, really. Nothing quite disastrous happened in Metro Manila today. I wish they didn’t cancel classes. There are things that had to be done in school today. All I did was sleep all day.

Right now, I’m just enjoying the last few hours of running electricity before the typhoon’s strong winds pound Metro Manila and Southern Luzon. I really do hope casualties and other such tragedies and damages will be minimal. Stay safe, everyone. (Though, it’s useless saying these to you fellow privileged bourgeoisie urbanites who will simply take shelter and stay safe in the comforts of our homes anyway).

Our Documentary professor was absent for class yesterday. He’s out of the country performing production duties for a broadcasting network. He left us with individual video exercises with the PD-150 camera. I shot my exercise at the dressmaker’s shop at the Shopping Center (SC). I enjoyed it. Oh, and I was surprised with who I bumped into at SC. It was my grade school friend, Kenji, who’s now in Ateneo, working at one of the photocopy stalls. It’s apparently part of one of their Philosophy courses, probably in recognition of their ‘bourgeoisie-ness’ that there is a need for them to immerse and reach out to the ordinary obrero. Very Atenean, indeed.

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Some of my collegemates and I attended the 2nd Pinoy [Youth] Media Congress at Miriam College the whole days yesterday and last Monday. It was really much more of an ABS-CBN propaganda event, really. I don’t mind. It gave us an insight into how things work in ABS-CBN, with all the icing of course. Almost the entire roster of ABS-CBN executives, from the Lopez siblings who own ABS-CBN, to Maria Ressa, head of news & current affairs, to all the heads of the different subsidiaries that make up the biggest media company in the country. It was a rare opportunity to hear them speak and promote their organization to representatives from almost all the mass communication schools in the country, and for us to have the opportunity to ask them questions ourselves.

I was surprised to realize how many hundreds of colleges and universities are teaching Mass Communication. There were almost a thousand student and faculty representatives at the Congress. With just a handful of media companies, how the hell can all of us be absorbed in the industry. With such a competitive environment, I can understand why some people can get easily frustrated with the prevailing trend.

The stereotype of Mass Comm students is that of one who wants to be a newscaster. Which can make me cringe, really. Hindi naman hayok sa camera ang mga nag-aaral ng say, Journalism or Film or Communication Research. That’s not even the path I want to take (as to what my plans are, I’ll share some other time).

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Right after my impromptu public speaking stint at the Anti-Tuition Hike rally in front of the crowd at Palma Hall, I left and succumbed to my ‘bourgeoisie’ tendencies and walked all the way to UP Hotel to gym with my friends from School of Economics* no less. Hehe. What’s nice about the gym at UP Hotel is that it’s much less known and it’s almost deserted during the afternoon, so it’s less intimidating that way, without the serious and affluent health buffs who usually crowd the more known gyms. I’m going to be under the tutelage of gym guru Dale Quimpo. Hahaha! Whew!

I proceeded to Mass Comm and attended another UP MCO general assembly, albeit for just a while. I also had to rush to the student council office for our weekly meeting. It’s the start of our ‘meeting season’. Hehe. Pun courtesy of Andreo.

(*where most academic supporters of the E-VAT and the Tuition and Other Fee Increases come from)

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I took this shot yesterday afternoon while walking along my usual route from ‘Central’ to Mass Comm.

Last Tuesday, by the way, we watched Irréversible during Film 114 class. It’s a grotesque French film that tells its story in reverse chronological order. That manner of narration was what made me appreciate it. Plus its brutally frank and realistic depiction of the violent scenes, including Monica Belluci’s tragic rape scene. You could see and feel the pain in her muffled screams. That rape scene was one looong take. Whew. I wonder how ordinary Filipinos perceive these kinds of films.

Yesterday, on the other hand, we watched our professor’s NCCA-sponsored documentary about Agtas who live at the foot of northern Sierra Madre along the Pacific coast of Isabela. It made me admire our professor much more. And wow, that part of Isabela looked really untouched, isolated and magnificent.

Anyway, I took Patti, James and AD to dinner last night. Its been a while since I ate out with the three of them.

I spent the whole day at the Manila Hotel last Friday and Saturday documenting an Integrated Bar of the Philippines convention. My nose bled. Figuratively. Sitting with lawyers the whole day from morning till night talking about civil liberties and whatnot can be an information overload. Whew. I actually listened to all the speakers. That earned me 12 units of MCLE (all lawyers are supposed to take 36 units every three years to maintain their inclusion and recognition in the lawyers’ roll) without even wanting to be a law student. I have to admit, for a while there it got me thinking of taking a law degree in the future. Who knows where the future will take me?

The hotel food was good too.

I would want to talk about what some of the speakers talked about but I’m too lazy right now. Some of them were inspiring, some were… uh, I don’t know. Supreme Court Justice Renato Puno was there, Atty. Dong Puno was there, Atty. Harry Roque was there, more notable lawyers whose names I don’t remember were there. Rep. Satur Ocampo was also there. Even Mark Jimenez, who isn’t a lawyer by the way, was there in his philantrophic spree giving out millions here and there. He readily gave 500,000 pesos to the IBP the night he spoke. Why did the IBP even invite him?