Hindi na naman ako pumasok sa trabaho

It's sembreak! And the government offices are friggin' half day! :D

 I was supposed to go to this seminar in Ortigas. It's a rare seminar sponsored by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Council (ADPC). They usually hold it abroad but it's nice they commenced it here in Manila, as what had Dr. Sandra told me. Yeah I was able to wake up at around 8am. Pero just thinking of the hassle of traveling on a jeep, bus, and MRT, plus about a 1.5km walk from the MRT going to Astoria Plaza, nadyadyahe na ko. Tsaka umuulan. Eto pa, kinunsinti ako ng magulang ko... ayos! Haha.

Syempre hindi ako papayag na hindi pumasok dahil wala lang at wala akong gagawin kung hindi nandito lang sa bahay. Of course with a little persuasion and a lot of luck, my father, mother, and I went to Alabang to eat. Then my mom and I went shopping. Ayos! Daming napamili! Hehe. I did utilize my money, pero marami ring nalibre sakin si ma, hehe. Astig talaga pag hindi pumapasok, haha. Hindi naman, it's just that bihira na lang kasi ako sa bahay so I feel that my parents would like us, my brothers and I, to enjoy our time with them. Lalo na ngayon lahat kaming magkakapatid busy building our future.

Sunday will be a fun day again I hope. We'll be visiting our subdivision in Naic, Cavite. Our bamboo house there is a bit old, pero ayos pa naman. It was a beauty way back in the 90s. Syempre wood, naluma na. Sayang nga e. 

Well, more documentary of my life tomorrow! :)

In exchange for not going to work...

Grabe hindi ako pumasok ng trabaho today! Haha! Pasaway! 

Well, it's sembreak naman and damn, I live far from UP and commute everyday. Lalo na ngayon wala pa namang carpool. But I did something productive in the house the though.

I cooked shrimp scampi! (Again! :D )

Expert ako magluto ng shrimp (ang K ng F!). Kung meron man akong alam lutuin, e yan na yun, hipon. Too bad some of my friends are allergic to shrimp. Well, sayang. Wala na akong alam lutuin talaga e, kahit ang adobo. Pasta and the sauce kaya and prito-prito ng hot dog, itlog, spam, and other canned goods. Pero hindi master. Etong shrimp talaga, winner! Haha! (Buhatan ng sariling bangko'!) 

Masaya. :) Kasi at least my day didn't go to waste here in the house. It's great :)

A fun afternoon with my family harvesting flowers

Today was a happy day for me and my family!

We went to our property in Victoria, Laguna to visit not only the house nor the market, but to harvest camias, ilang-ilangs, and mirasols as well in our small garden patch beside the house. It was sooo fun! The garden was full of camia shoots and there was this big ilang-ilang tree and a couple of mirasol shrubs. Ang ganda nga e! And the air reeked the smell of pleasant flowers. It was a medley of scents that danced in the air. Papa had this big pail and we would all deposit the flowers there. It was amazing to pick the camias. You have to pick them in a manner that you do it quick and with a jerky movement. Otherwise, you'll end up breaking the stalk.

Aside from picking flowers, it was fun to see again the house. The view from the third floor was fantastic! You could see the mountain range from there and the clouds that kiss the mountains' summit. Truly breathtaking. And the wind that enters through the windows breathes life into the house. Pwede nang hindi mag-electric fan, ang lakas ng hangin e, haha.

Masaya talaga ang buhay. I love my life... :)

Happy pics with happy friends!

The reunion of the decade! DLSU Chem/Biochem batch 2002 reunited at Solihiya in Greenbelt 5! This was taken last, uh, I forget the month, but it's definitely 2008! :) I think this was around August...

This is Marianne, my thesis mate in undergrad, and I. Fresh from the US of A si Marianne todits e, kaya ayan, tingnan mo, ang ganda... Haha! At may boyfriend na ang bruha! And to think dati kineclaim niya na siya ay isang.... *toot*... Hahaha! So who's the *toot* now??? :D

Reunited 'cause it feels so good... DLSU-M Chem/Biochem batch of 2002! Seated around the table starting from left, Krisanne, Jwan, Jo, RJ, Marianne, me, Karen, Rap, and Romeo... Oh there's a waiter and a customer at the right side of the photo... Hehe.

The BRADY bunch posing at GB 5... From left to right (seated): Marianne (ang babaeng nanggaling-lang-states-eh-nagka-boypren-na), Karen (ang kabiyak ni Rap), me (ang pinakasexy, pinakamaganda, at pinakamatalinong hayop sa balat ng lupa-charing!) , Jo (ang batang may malaking hinaharap), Louise (ang headturner nung undergrad), Jwan (the hot diva from Batangas na ngayon ay isa nang plant engineer---hwaaat?!). From left to right (standing): Romeo "chickboy" Torreta, Harold "hanep sa kapayatan" Go, RV "mountaineer" Tan, Rap "kabiyak ni Karen" Espiritu, Krisanne (ang babaeng walang sawa magpamasahe dahil walang kiliti), Marlo "dakilang guro awardee" Castillo, at Ryan Jay Fernando "driver sweet lover ng Pajero" Fuentes.Jwanini and I... :) hindi ko po siya jowa ladies and gentlemen.

Trying out Romeo "chickboy" Torreta's Sony digicam that takes your picture only when you smile... :)

Haaay ang saya ng college days ko!!! Panalo!!! Woohoo!

World Youth Day photographs

At Flinders station at Melbourne, Australia with Grace. Behind us is St. Patrick's Cathedral,

At the Sydney Harbour Bridge with Jenina and the Philippine flag behind us.

With the gorgeous London boys at the Barangaroo area in Sydney. Mega-dikit naman ako dun sa naka-shades, haha!

One of my favorite photos at WYD. With the Papua New Guinea delegates. This pic looks like a National Geographic shot, hehe.

With Grace and Peter at the Barangaroo area. Check how bright the sun is! Such a sunny day. :)

melancholia

I am here at UP-NIGS's Engineering Geology Laboratory doing two papers:

One is for my presentation for Bangkok and another one is for Dr. Duyanen's class of ES 297 (Sediment analysis).

And I can't help but get this mixed feeling of melancholy and despondence. There's this looming thing, a looming forebodingness somewhere that's going to eat me. And for a long time, too...

Ugh...

A fun and comedic day

Ayala museum...

laughed at paintings with eden and adrian and allan

met larry and pat gotuaco

chat with other fossil enthusiasts

chat with larry and pat 

met eric ebro and carlos syllanteng at ayala museum

rushed to greenbelt for fuera de carta with allan

laughed my ass off at fuera de carta

met ms. natty manauat, one of my two most favorite professors at DLSU, at figaro in greenbelt

went to G4 to watch tropic thunder with allan (again)

laughed my ass off even harder at tropic thunder

This day was just sooo fun. And it's fucking amazing.

p.s. but it could've been more fun if...

Moments that make me smile...

I have seen three things today before going to school that put a smile on my face.

First were the kids on the bus on the adjacent lane waving at our bus. They were so innocent-looking and you'd get that feeling of happiness when you see the kids waving at you and flashing their incomplete teeth in front, haha.

Second was a boy who I rode with in the ikot jeep. He had this cute hat of an animal. The funny thing was I didn't know what animal it was! Haha! I don't know if it's a fox or an anteater because it had a long snout. It couldn't be an anteater because it had whiskers and it has a two-tone color on the face but it couldn't be a fox because of a long snout. Or maybe it was a fox, mali lang yung tahi niya... Hmmm...  I was amused because I was imagining a cross between an anteater and a fox, haha!

Third was when I was whistling down the hall at NIGS going to the lab the tune of Kill Bill. I have only whistled a few notes when suddenly Nick, a geology undergrad student, whistled the remaining notes of the tune, haha. And it echoed throughout the hall. It was amazing.

Priceless moments that I got for free... I love my life. :)

Another check this out...

Science at its funniest.Clockwise from top-left: Master of Ceremonies Marc Abrahams with a paper airplane lodged in his hat; a silvery Harvard undergraduate; Redundancy, Again the operetta; and a demonstration of the jumping ability of fleas.

CREDIT:J. BOHANNON/SCIENCE

Ig Nobels Honor Studies of Lap Dancing, Soft Drink-Based Contraception

By John Bohannon
ScienceNOW Daily News
3 October 2008

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS--Where can you see a Nobel prize-winning chemist, the inventor of the pink plastic flamingo, a sword-swallower, and an accordion band on the same stage--and all being pelted with paper airplanes? At the Ig Nobel prize ceremony, of course. Last night in a Harvard University theater, 10 teams of scientists were honored for research that "first makes you laugh, then makes you think."

Much like Sweden's slightly more famous Nobel Prize, the Ig Nobels often amount to a lifetime achievement award, granted on the basis of research that is considered highly significant--or hilarious, in the case of the Ig Nobels--many years later. But recent breakthroughs do get recognized if sufficiently world-shaking. This year's Ig Nobel Economics prize, for example, went to the discovery that a lap dancer's tips wax and wane with her ovulatory cycle (ScienceNOW, 5 October 2007). According to the study, published last year in Evolution and Human Behavior, a woman unconsciously signals her fertility state through body movements, which motivate her admirers to tip more generously. While accepting their Ig Nobel, Geoffrey Miller and Brent Jordan, psychologists at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, wryly noted that their research subjects earned double their annual salaries as scientists.

The sexual overtones continued with this year's Ig Nobel prize for chemistry. In a first for the Ig Nobel, two teams were honored for finding the opposite result. In a 1985 New England Journal of Medicine study, a team led by Harvard Medical School fertility researcher Deborah Anderson discovered that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide when used promptly for vaginal irrigation after a sexual encounter. But 2 years later, a team led by Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University in Taiwan found the soft drink's "spermicidal potency" lacking, as reported in Human Toxicology. In honor of the ambiguous findings, a Coca-Cola toast was made on stage by the ceremony's dignitaries, including Harvard chemist William Lipscomb (Nobel 1976) and fractal geometry pioneer Benoit Mandelbrot.

The cabaret-like ceremony included much more than scientific recognition. Don Featherstone (Ig Nobel 1996 for inventing the plastic pink flamingo) showed off his latest yard ornaments, and Dan Meyer (Ig Nobel 2007 for a study of the side effects of sword-swallowing) swallowed a sword on stage. Then, the world debut of an operetta called Redundancy, Again was performed with live accordion accompaniment. The audience also had a chance to get in on the action. Besides being encouraged to express themselves by folding pages from the program into paper airplanes and launching them toward the stage, two lucky audience members won a night out, one with Lipscomb in the Win-a-Date-With-a-Nobel-Laureate Contest and the other with Mandelbrot in the Win-a-Date-With-Benoit-Mandelbrot Contest. Details of the date preconditions were not released, but both the winners and their prizes looked immensely pleased.

taken from www.sciencenow.sciencemag.org

Check this out...

A fool and his money. 
Men tip lap dancers more when the gyrating women are most fertile.

Credit: Gary Houlder/Corbis

Something in the Way She Moves?

By Constance Holden
ScienceNOW Daily News
5 October 2007

In a particularly stimulating study, researchers have found that lap dancers--women who work in strip joints and, for cash, gyrate in the laps of seated men--earn more when they are in the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. The finding suggests that women subtly signal when they are most fertile, although just how they do it is not clear.

Women, unlike many mammals, don't come into heat or estrus, a state of obvious fertility that attracts potential mates. Common wisdom has it that estrus was lost as humans evolved. The notion is that women evolved "concealed ovulation" along with around-the-month sexual receptivity the better to manipulate males by keeping them in the dark, says Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. But now Miller and colleagues have found evidence that a woman’s state of fertility may not be so secret after all.

The researchers used ads and flyers to sign up 18 lap dancers from local clubs. Each woman was asked to log on to a Web site and report her work hours, tips, and when she was menstruating. Lap dancers generally work 5-hour shifts with 18 or so 3-minute performances per shift. They average about $14 per "dance"--all of which is called a "tip" because it is illegal to pay for sex in New Mexico.

Over a 60-day period, the researchers collected data from 5300 lap dances. They divided the answers according to whether the dancers were in the menstrual phase, the high-fertility estrous phase, or the luteal phase. The result, as they report online this week in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior: Of the 11 women with normal menstrual cycles, those in the estrous phase pulled in about $70 an hour--compared with $50 for those in the luteal phase, and only $35 an hour for those who were menstruating. The other seven women were on birth control pills. They earned less across the board, and there was no peaking at the estrous phase.

The numbers suggest that men can tell when a woman is most fertile, although the message seems to be conveyed by "subtle behavioral signals" that evade conscious detection, the authors say. They add that the study couldn't identify whether it is scent or other physical changes that cue the men in, but they don't think it's anything obvious such as type of dance moves or "conversational content."

Evolutionary psychologist Karl Grammer of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Urban Ethology in Vienna says the result fits with his findings that it's possible to detect ovulation through the effect of raised levels of estrogens on the way women walk and dance. "It is highly possible that estrogen modulates motion abilities," says Grammer, in which case "it seems to be most likely that body motion--and not pheromones--is the information carrier."

taken from www.sciencenow.sciencemag.org

My brother's wedding!

Omigas abelgas my brother's married! Aaaaaa! Yep, last September 24, 2008 at Santuario de San Antonio, Forbes Park, Makati followed by a reception at the Pasay A and B function room in Shangri-La Hotel, Makati. Here are a few snippets (photos) of their simple yet elegant wedding. Oh wait, it was also the birthday of my brother and father. It was a celebration of life (birthdays) and love (wedding) :) 

The picture of our family at Santuario de San Antonio with the newlyweds.

That's me and my brothers kissing the bride. This is such a fun picture. :)

Best shot I've seen so far by the bride and groom at the Shangri-La.

Caught the bouquet! Landed smack right onto my face! Dapat si Jolina ang nakakuha e, hindi ako, haha!

Me, Laurice, Kuya, and Diko. The boys (that includes me) with the bride. Haha!

That was such a fun and blessed day... :)

Some photos somewhere...

The snake wrangler bitch... haha! That's somewhere in Tiendesitas. Feeling Jeff Corwin naman ako...

Part of the family at Nanay's house in Tandang Sora when she was still alive. Christmas 2007. Wow sobrang luma na pala nitong litrato ko na 'to...

That's me at the foot of Mt. Can-abag checking out the hummocky topography. This was the area we visited for the Guinsaugon 2008 International Conference. Yes, it was international. We had guests from New Zealand, Canada, Sri Lanka, US, etc.

That's me at Bulusan Lake...

And this is me at the Cam Sur Water Sports Complex with my knee board. Too bad I wasn't able to try the wake board. Sakit na ng arms ko pucha.

My life from March to September 2008

So much has happened...

So many achievements... (well that's what I would like to call it)

So many experiences---> the hurts, the joys, the fuckin' rockin' times of my life...

Let me see, here I go again doing the list:

Visited the following places:

Mt. Can-abag in St. Bernard Southern Leyte and Tacloban, for the International Conference-Workshop on the 17 February 2006 Guinsaugon Landslide
Samar (crossed the San Juanico bridge)
Panglao, Bohol
Balicasag Island (went skin diving, dolphin watching)
Chocolate Hills (saw the Tarsiers)
Baclayon Church
PNOC Geothermal plant in Bacon-Manito, Albay
Camarines Sur and went knee-boarding
Irosin, Bicol (went Mulberry bush picking at Apple's ancestral house)
Bulusan Lake (also saw Bulusan Volcano)
Sydney, Australia
Melbourne, Australia (both for the World Youth Day 2008)
Mangatarem, Pangasinan (field for Geol 297 class)
Kalibo, Aklan (for QRT)
Boracay Island (some RnR after QRT)

Oh yeah, I went to Melbourne for Days in the Dioceses and to Sydney for the World Youth Day proper. Woohoo astig talaga yung time na yun. It was my first time out of the country. Ang saya! I got to see the Darling Harbour in Sydney. It was fantastic! It really was such a darling! It was such a romantic place! I even got to watch an opera show at the Sydney Opera House! For free! Woohoo! I also went to the Metropolitan Museum in Sydney with my cool cousin, Danielle. I got to pose with the works of Van Gogh, Monet, and Picasso! We also cycled around the city, drank my first Heineken at this posh bar, walked in the park somewhere, went to St. Mary's Cathedral, etc. Masaya talaga! Another great thing was a feeling of independence. I got to ride on Australia's trains, which were double decked, in Melbourne's cable car, in their buses, which were on time all the time. I wasn't able to ride a cab though.

sorry singit, check this out:

http://gcruz09.multiply.com/photos/album/57/Youth_Ministry_Page_WYD_Special_Edition#2

http://gcruz09.multiply.com/photos/album/53/wyd_pilgrim_postcard#1

Ayan... hmm, what else? Well, I have finished analyzing my thesis soil samples at PNRI. Yeah, after hours of being exposed in X-rays. Magkakaanak pa kaya ako?

The XRD and XRF machines have arrived at NIGS. ICP-MS na lang ang hinihintay.

The DOST project for the Bicol Arc region of Dr. Sandra with Dr. Alyssa, Dr. Marissa, and Dr. Ando has been approved. Yehey! I hope I get to go with her in her trips though...

May air-con na ang lab ko! Woohoo!

I have a new pair of Levi's copper jeans! Woohoo!

My abstract was accepted for the 6th Research Symposium on Infrastructure Development to be held at Bangkok, Thailand where I would present a paper.

Played Nintendo Wii with Jwan, RJ, and Jonalyne at Jonalyne's house

I kissed a girl and I liked it... the feel of her soft lips... haha! Katy Perry!

Contracted dengue fever

Omigod my brother got married to Laurice last September 24! Hooray for the newlyweds!

First time I contracted an allergy my whole life and on the day of my kuya's wedding! I was rushed to the hospital and injected by a knock-out steroid for the itch/allergy.

Been into the movie house 11 times last June. Eto na ang pinakamarami kong pelikulang napanood sa isang buwan sa buong buhay ko.

Checked out an alkaline hot spring somewhere in Pangasinan

Immersed in clay studies lately. I got clay in my thesis samples! Yey!

Was able to play two jazz piano pieces, The Nearness of You and That's All. Woohoo konting practice na lang jazzy-jazzy shit na 'to!

Had my picture taken beside the works of James Gleeson, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet.

Was able to visit Ayala Museum's exhibit on the Surigao Gold and ceiling paintings of Baclayon Church.

Well I guess that's some of my achievements from March to September. Marami pa e, kaso hindi ko na masyadong malagay pa todits. Life is really fun, I just love living my life.

when you get that uneasy feeling...

I don't know what's up with me lately but there's this thing that's eating me... ugh, I hate it. But it's there and I know the only time that this would let up is when you face it and just solve the problem. But how?

Ano baaaaa?! Saan ba talaga akoooo?!?!?

Ayaaaaan!!!

I'm so happy that I can write again in my blog with no work, no school, no time limit pressuring me. So, what's up with my life? Hmmm...

I have this dilemma you see, I don't know which MS degree I should take. Enrolled nga ako sa MS Envi Sci and it has been a year when I started studying. I have completed 13 units and what's left are 11 units of coursework and my Master's thesis and my Master's seminar.

Pero putek, I want out!

Hindi ko nga alam kung bakit e. Maybe it's because of Dr. Lem's subject na 212 which is Environmental Problems and Issues. Namulat ako dun sa subject na yun: that environmental science is a study of INTERRELATIONSHIPS. So hindi ka talaga based lang on pure, hardcore science but it is mixed with social science, politics, law, philosophy, history, geography, anthropology, heck, even religion! Kasi it's about assessing man's relationship with the environment. And once you start dealing with man, especially here in the Philippines, ang daming factors to consider.

One is the great populace with stratified social classes. Marami yan, may mga poor, mga isang kahig isang tuka na pamilya, mga middle class, upper middle class (not filthy rich, but not middle class, kumbaga can afford to have more than the minimum normal luxury), and the filthy rich. You have to deal with all of those. May mga patakaran na patok sa mga poor, pero hindi patok sa ibang class. O kaya may mga patakaran naman na babagay sa mayayaman (the filthy rich) pero hindi magkiclick sa mga poor o kaya middle class. Ang hirap e. Ika nga, the poor gets poorer, the rich gets richer. Proven ko na yan (well at least for myself). Eto na lang e, sa school: pansinin niyo na yung mga matatalino, sila pa yung makakakuha ng mas matataas na grade. Sasabihin ng teacher, "okay, those who would get above 75 would have an additional 5 points." Pano yan, edi magiging 80 sila? Samantalang those who really need the grade, like the people with grades below 75, edi stuck na sila dun e mas kailangan nila? E sa economics... Kunwari mayaman ka, tapos marami ka nang pera. Syempre diba ano gagawin mo dun? Edi iiinvest mo? In return you would get more money. E yung mga wala talaga, they have nothing to start with so poor na talaga sila. They become poorer! And this goes on and on.

The politics in the Philippines is a farce. Aside from that, it is obscenely plagued with corruption, greed, demoralizing acts, and clowns prancing around the Senate. Ang pulitika dito ay parang HIV/AIDS. Isa siyang virus na hindi nagagamot. It would weaken the country and attack its system little by little, until it crashes and die. Napag-usapan namin sa klase yung mga laws and acts that were approved by the government to help protect/conserve the environment (like the clean air/water act, promotion of renewable energies, eco-tourism policies, solid waste management, pollution control, etc.) Ayos sila, magaganda. Some are really ideal and good. Talagang nung iniisip yun, e iniisip ang kapakanan ng tao at ng environment. Pero alam mo kung saan tayo nagkulang? Sa implementation and monitoring! Bakit?! Because this strategy is not thoroughly backed up by the government! Kulang pasahod sa mga taong nangangalaga, kulang benefits, there's this culture of thought na wala yan, na marami pang ganyan, at yung pag-iisip na "e bakit ko aalagaan yan o bakit ko iiimplement niyan e ang makikinabang sa project na yan pag nag-succeed e yung pulitikong me pakulo ng proyektong yan." Haaay... And this goes on and on.

Majority of the Filipinos' priority is not to take care of their surroundings but on how to put food on their table. This attitude is apparent to a big portion of the Philippine populace because a lot live below the poverty line. If you go to the coastal provinces, notice the litter on the beach, notice how the bahay kubos there throw their trash just a few steps away from their property, notice a kid when s/he opens a candy and throws the wrapper on the beach... they just don't seem to care. Actually nabobother talaga ako e. I tried to put myself in their shoes at ganito ang naisip ko: okay kunyari ako yung bata na kumain ng candy. Since nakita ko na malaki ang beach, hindi sobrang dami yung basura dun, itatapon ko na lang yung wrapper, anyway maliit lang naman yung waste na yun compared sa size nung beach tsaka, ano ba namang klaseng litter ang magagawa nun e ang liit-liit. Yan. Ang ganyang pag-iisip ang kikitil sa buhay ng marine coastal areas. Nakakalungkot. But on the other hand, masaya na rin ako because there are people who are concerned---people who love the environment.

Hindi ko na alam kung ano ang isusunod sa post na ito dahil sobrang tagal na nito sa blog ko at ngayon ko lang na-publish... kahit nga yung desire kong mag-shift nagbago na... woohoo!

Mga kathang isip ko...

So much has happened in 2008 for me! Sobrang dami hindi ko na maalala! Haha. Anyway, the most recent event I had was traveling for FREE (because of work) to Tacloban City and to the Guinsaugon landslide at St. Bernard with Dr. Sandra. Oo, as in super free lahat! The only time ginastos ko pera ko was to buy souvenirs. Ang saya! Second time ko palang sa airplane, haha! Ang pathetic ba? Pero super saya ko and excited!

Naaksidente pa nga kami sa St. Bernard e. The habal-habal we rode got knocked out and the motorcycle landed on my leg which produced a big and painful hematoma, the skin on Dr. Sandra's hind skull bled profusely, and the driver suffered a nasty bruise on his forehead and a lot of gashes on his shins. Pero I am thankful na ganun lang ang nangyari samin. Lalo na sakin! I didn't have any open wounds talaga! As in galos lang ng konti sa siko, and a cut sa hand pero yun lang! Thank you Lord for protecting us.

Mga kathang isip ko...

I always get stuck on writing my blog because I want to write them long.