February 27, 2010

2:22 PM

@UA&P

Alas, hell months are finally over --- well, almost. When was the last time I glued myself to my ultimate gaming machine to enjoy my weekly dose of Modern Warfare 2 and NBA 2K10? Can't even remember that very exact date, for a guy like me who remembers his gaming moments vividly. It's an obvious cue that I have been too consumed by the academic side of things. BA 170 is such a pain in the ass, believe me. Deliverables are due every other day. You always find yourself at the receiving end of a professor's wrath. It's a good thing I'm done with my reports this week. Whew, what a relief. Slacking off in CBA is never an option; nor is sleep.

February 23, 2010

11:58 AM

A night of booze and cigars is never my ideal kind of getaway. What happened back in Rembrandt, stayed in Rembrandt. Should I be proud of chugging down a few glasses of whiskey? It might have been a perfect display of machismo yet the taste of rubbing alcohol running down your throat was nasty. I didn't like it even one bit. Why are people so addicted to cigars and booze? Puffing smoke and ingesting alcohol into your system is anything but desirable. All you get is a beer belly and a severe case of halitosis. Good luck smooching with your significant other(s).

Feb. 24, 2010

5:57 PM

Hey people! Here's a short piece I made inspired by a Detective Conan Episode back when I was relatively younger. Have you ever had an argument with someone you really care for only to find out later on that something terrible's gonna happen to him?

Fleeting glimpses

Streaks of orange and white pierced the horizon as the afternoon glow turned into dusk. I have been staring at blank spaces for I-don’t-know-since-when, thinking of what to orchestrate with a few brush strokes and a blank canvas. Despite my persistent effort, the argument with my elder brother days ago was the only thing that crossed my mind, nothing else. My creative juices had run dry, like a well in the middle of a blistering desert.

I stood up to flex my head left and right hoping to shake off my worries. The moment I collapsed back onto my stool, every detail of the room disintegrated and morphed into a new environment. Like the scenes you see in movies where the character gets taken to a new dimension. It’s somehow similar to that. I found myself staring at a man on top of a diving board. I barely saw the man’s face but he instantly reminded me of someone I know. There was an instant connection.

I had a quick glimpse of a scene painters would die to see - an Olympic-sized pool and a man about to make a 40-foot dive with the moonlight cascading over the waters. A chilly brush of wind managed to get past the open window. In a matter of seconds, the man started to plunge his way down towards the pool. I recognized what he was wearing. I’m certain it looked familiar. It had my surname scrawled on it in fine black print.

It felt like everything was moving a minute slower. I could see the man suspended in the air. I saw him wearing trunks and a diving cap; a man plummeting towards a pool, a leap of death. I locked my eyes onto his face, this time I was absolutely sure I know him. In a flash, everything came back to normal. He vanished. A tear quickly ran down my face. “Brother.” I murmured.

February 13, 2010

12:00 AM

Thanks to startling breakthroughs in computer technology and an escalating sense of urgency among the administration peeps up there, UP life these days have become less hassle-free and more convenient than it was a few years back. This was the very concept I learned from my Econ 101. In the parlance of Economics (if my memory serves me right), there shall always be trade-offs between all things in life - in order for one to have more of something, one has to have less of something else. That's how nature works - or in the language of Obi Wan Kennobi (sorry for the misspelling), that's how the force is balanced. Sounds very pedantic yet it applies to almost all facets of life (and yes you get me right, even to your love life). Less hassle, more convenience. But that's besides the point. What I really want to talk about is the convenience that CRS brings to every UPian's table. For outsiders who don't even have the slightest idea of what a damn CRS is, let me enlighten you. CRS is a computer program of some sort (forgive me for my ugly choice of words) that lets UP students enroll on subjects of his choice during the enrollment period. You 're given a list of subjects that can be taken by virtually anyone (applies to GEs and electives) and you just have to enlist yourself on classes you are required to take and pray to God that you get the subjects you want on the first batch processing. By the time the third batch processing ends and you still don't have all the subjects you want/need to take for the current semester, that's the time when you fall back to earth and join the rest of us mortals to manually enlist like what most of our UP ancestors did during their stint in UP (that includes Manny Villar and Gibo Teodoro). Since the inception of CRS technology, class cards have been history. Gone are the days when we used to fill out those small white cards at the start of the semester and claim them during sembreaks to see our barely-passing grades. Gone are the days when we had to wake up 5 AM in the morning to save ourselves of our much-needed slots - only to find out we are at the mercy of the RVCs and the RAs. Yeah, good old times of long lines which never seem to end and bouts of heated confrontations among singits, matagal-nang-nakapila, and pinang-save-sa-pila.

February 6, 2010

11:26 AM

Breaking news! Kevin H. is in the building. "This blog is strictly for academic-related activities. Any posts with references to sex, love, drunkness, etc. shall be erased without prior notice. Thank you." This is a sample blog. The font options in this blog is awful. Please follow me on twitter - kevinofrohan. By the way, I won't be discarding this blog even after BA 180.1 so I'm hoping you'll stick around.