College

I just arrived home a few hours ago from Jakarta and Singapore. Last night, the results of the UPCAT were released and even before that, the DLSU Results were already hanging around the internet. What a rude introduction to a new year. :-(

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My results are actually good and I passed the courses I have been reasoning out as the ones most appropriate for me. I got in: 

DLSU: BS in Human Biology. Its the course that embodies a two-year premed and a four-year med proper schooling. 6 years and I can already be applying for residency! Wiii!

UP Los Banos: BS Biology. Way before dinosaurs, I was already planning on getting to Los Banos which will be a few hours drive from the hustle and bustle of Metro Manila. I am a sucker for temptation and I just might end up as a broke, prodigal son. I need to veer away from distractions (which includes opportunities) in the capital city to increase my chances of finishing college. UP-Los Banos, from what I heard from friends, will be more of a schooling paradise where you can walk around the campus, smiling with contentment (imagine!).

-Still waiting for the results of Ateneo and UST.
-I also passed Southville Foreign University(SFU) through a quiz bee which only adds up to my problem of decision-making. They have this amazing course and kitchen where I can study to become a chef! I always wanted to be a chef just like a child wants to become a dinosaur.

I'm really excited about getting into college because I would really enjoy having to concentrate on a topic as opposed to that in high school where in one period you talk about the molecular structure of bodily proteins, in another you talk about the marginal revenue and the elasticities of goods in the market. You get tired of the incoherences after a while.

When concern becomes annoying

Its been a long time since I posted an entry. I went to Singapore, right? For that I missed a few classes and had to make-up for some assignments and take missed exams. Senior year in Pisay isn't really the most laid-back whirlwind around, to be blunt, I have been lost in schoolwork that blogging will become burden if I force it into my workload.

I am the type of person who doesn't enjoy seeing a problem then treating it immediately. I am the kind of person who sees an atrocity, waits for another, until I see a whole dozen of them then I start solving the problems. I like collecting tasks instead of doing them one by one because long streaks of work require less adaptive rituals than segmented labor. Anyways.....

I am a minor and I can't deny the fact that sleep is becoming a luxury for me. I sleep, at most, 6 hours a day and having the idea that a person needs at least 8 hours of sleep everyday is bugging me. I feel like I'm committing a mortal sin everyday by not sleeping as long as the experts want me to. Science high schools with poor time management is barely about sleeping. 

Someone who sleeps under the same roof with me noticed my cold relationship with nightly hibernations and he/she is very vocal about her concern. Come one. If only it was ethical that you did my work while I slept so you can shut up, I have done that already. Concern, when effect-less, is very annoying. When you see someone in pain, don't moan with him/her if you can't help.

(PS: The experts also say grumpiness can be caused by lack of sleep)

The Capital City

I have hazy memories of the capital city. My trips to Manila were usually limited to a few hours or at most, a night and a short day. I was ecstatic that last Friday, me, my five other classmates and a teacher, went to Manila for a quiz bee (and a lot more). Wihi! Two nights in the National Capital Region. Of course, I was excited. NCR is the nearest domestic address we have to "the city that never sleeps" and I'm going with friends who fall under the same age group and with the same preferences as me.

(Read more for more fun...)

I survived the first day

If I have nothing to do, I just take photos of whatever, usually myself.

I don't really expect a lot of enjoyment from the sports intramural because I am a sucker for anything that involves hitting a ball, running, swimming or working with group mates. I'm just happy I survived the first day alive although I could remember some mini faints just by standing around a lot of sporty people.

(This picture was edited so the colors are not accurate. I was not that pale.)

Just for the sake of doing something coherent, I decided to join the boys' seniors vs. sophomores volleyball game - bad idea. First few seconds in the court and I was already dumb scared of being the reason of defeat. So my shaken knees proved my efforts futile. It was there I accepted the fact that a career in sports be scratched off my list. 

I have another two days to survive and I will try to enjoy survival. 

I've been busy with what I love

The exams are over and tomorrow will be a new week! Third quarter is going to start and I'm looking forward to whatever is coming. You can tell that I am in a good mood.

First things first. Its October 10, 2010. About three days after the last post so sorry for sleeping on my blog, I was really preoccupied. There was the exams that pulverized my biological timetable, there was my incredible liking of making videos and photographs to add to the to-do-list and I had to go back to school during the two days of break every week for lab work. 

Click Read more to...well... ermmm... read more! :) And I have a video presentation down there, I remember.

Examinasyon

Exams week is back and my blog will go on to a little hiatus. Its so little that it might not even exist because in times where stress is at maximum, I blog to relax.

I have been using my Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens lately. I missed its perfection. The tiny mass of it, the feel and the very classic bokeh. I'm falling in love with photography all over again! For the meantime, I need to study about dissociation of acids and bases and such....

Photos taken with the nifty fifty:
[Done a day before the quarterly exams. We arm ourselves for exams in weird ways.]

really happy about the weather

nice weather, stupid face

in the bushes lie a fraction of humanity.

Pen and Paper.

For the second quarter in school, we were tasked to read and digest the play Oedipus. Before reading the whole selection, I was already looking forward to the part where Oedipus falls in love with his mother because eras ago, we have already discussed the psychological disorder called Oedipus complex. You have to be happy for me because I had an idea of what would happen. During the first quarter, we discussed Homer's The Iliad and while my classmates were graceful enough to know at least three-fourths of the gods and goddesses plus whatever corresponding noun they are ruling, I had no single drop of knowledge aside from Hades was from the underworld and Zeus carried a lightning rod of some sort. Too bad the Holy Trinity, a major ingredient in my family's native education system, was unique to Homer. No salvation for him and I then.

Back to Oedipus. My teacher cleverly devised a procedure to pressure us to get into our handouts. You are grouped into packs of 4 and your follow-up quiz scores will be averaged. Meaning, if you have the lowest point in your group, you just destroyed a part of the future of your classmates. My group mates' memory dwarf my aged brain. First quiz, 2 got 13 out of 15 while one got 16 out of 15, using the bonus points to rise above us all. I got 12 and that meant I just tainted their grades.

UPCAT season

So the two-day University of the Philippines College Admission Tests (UPCAT) season has just begun with the first batch of hopefuls who took the exam 6:30 AM today. For whatever reason, I was scheduled to take the exam tomorrow at the same time. It would be a milestone because I usually wake up late. I need to tell everyone within 100 meters to wake me up at 3:30!

Did you study for the UPCAT? I did, very minimally. Just a few ideas had to be reviewed. I can't review the whole UPCAT because I heard that the test coverage was the whole high school curriculum. The thought of it already overwhelms me and it is impossible to review 3 school years in a couple of days. I don't want a tired brain during the exams. I settled that all I will need is presence of mind and health.

So, am I ready? Well, not really. But its coming anyway so all I can do now is hope for the best and keep on enjoying the fun world problems the MSA Reviewers are sharing. In all honesty, I really enjoy math word problems.

PSHS-WV Campus postpone classes for mosquito extermination

Image from here

About ten students, faculty or staff members of the Philippine Science High School-Western Visayas Campus had been diagnosed of dengue fever in less than a month. With this, the administration declared August 9-13, 2010 (next week) to be no school days. This is to facilitate thorough mosquito extermination in the campus and to give inflicted students time to recover.

Well, balance in life is a comedy. This week had hectic written all over it and suddenly, school closes for a week for rest. 

Finally, something to do!

For a few weeks since the start of summer, my daily routine was suicide. Sleep, breakfast, sleep, TV, sleep, lunch, sleep, TV, sleep, dinner, Facebook until near morning. I knew after several months I could die of heart failure so I looked for something to do. Summer should not be paired with lack of activity.

I received a text message from my classmate that a tutorial center here in Iloilo will be holding review classes for college entrance exams. I'm an incoming high school senior and it was music to my ears. I was even happier that it was slightly far away from my school. Now I have to walk everyday and while walking, I can take photos of Iloilo. That is why I started this other photoblog. Check it out to see my photography!

Happiness is just inside of me that I finally found away to spend the summer without choking my arteries with fats!

Diaries of a Junior Surgeon Part 1

Today, I had a chance to participate actively in a mass circumcision drive hosted by the GAD (Gender and Development) Department of my school. I am a fan of medical drives because as a science scholar aiming to be a medical doctor, it exposes me to real-life blood and gore that scares me more than anything, at least in medicine.

We arrived at the Judith Lazarraga Tiongco Elementary School, Tabuc Suba, Jaro, Iloilo City around 8:30 am, successfully pinning down our target time. We settled down in a school classroom a.k.a. clinic with makeshift beds formed by joined student tables. We started preparing all the needed materials for the circumcision, which I will refer to as surgery hereafter.

Preparing the materials, one of the least exciting steps in the process, was a life changer for me. Each and every material in the kits will be used in the gory ritual every pre-pubescent Filipino fear. Somehow I felt prepared for what is to come.

To remind you, I’m just 16 years old and a dummy in surgery so I am in no way capable of doing the surgery, or any other surgery to be exact. I will be assisting professionals so no need to feel alarmed about this article.

First patient arrives. About 16 years old, obviously had undergone puberty. I got scared. My dream of confidently assisting a doctor evaporated. All courage and confidence just flew away. This is scarier than I thought. He walks in, gets naked. Lays down and waits for everything to be over. I can’t even take a look. I was so scared of something I never met. This is not a good start.