Glee: Short comments on the episodes
Episode 9: Special Education
Story about the Sectionals. Worse than last year, I must say.
Episode 10: A Very Glee Christmas
A very heart-warming episode. It made me feel what Christmas was all about.
Movies for the Christmas Break:
I watched the following movies during the Christmas Break:
1. Easy A - movie released this year, a twist on the usual chick flick, it gives us a deeper side to high school gossips, rebellion and fitting-in.
2. A Cinderella Story - 2004 movie about a modern re-telling of Cinderella
3. Serendipity - 2001 romantic-comedy about two people who left their destiny up to fate.
4. Ella Enchanted - 2004 film about a fairy-tale world of royalties and peasants, with Ella of Frell given the gift of obedience (always obeying ANY command) by fairy godmother Lucinda.
5. Enchanted - 2007 film, mix of fairy world and real world
6. The Twilight Saga: Eclipse - 2010 film, Third installment of Stephanie Mayer's Twilight Saga, a love story between a vampire and a human, a girl willing to give up his life to become a vampire for her one true love.
7. Starship Troopers - 1997 film, Arachnids vs. humans
8. Miss You Like Crazy - 2010 film about love, twisted as it may seem
I'll be watching more movies in the coming days, such as The Proposal and the Narnia series.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Christmas Meet-ups
Movie with Roy and Jess:
I was able to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 during its opening day here in Manila. It was my first meeting with Roy Moore, our British friend, who's now living here in Manila for a charity and his Masters study at UP. Jess was also with us for the movie.
I did not watch nor read any of the first 6 books of Harry Potter. I didn't even read the 7th book. So when I watched the film, I was a bit clueless at times, although in all fairness, I was able to follow the story. The movie was quite okay, and with the fact that I can understand it as a stand-alone movie, I must say that it is well-made.
Christmas Dinner with Isa and Nikka:
Last December 11, I had another dinner with Nikka and Isa, this time, for our Christmas Dinner. Unlike the one last month, we decided to watch a movie first before eating. We watched the third installment of the Narnia series: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Like HP, I wasn't able to watch the first two installments of the series. However, unlike HP, I was able to easily follow, without parts which I cannot fully understand. Perhaps it's becoming my habit to watch movies without their prequels.
We then ate at Sumo Sam, a Japanese restaurant. Quite expensive, but the food was heavenly. Perhaps what I liked best was their Green Tea. We then went to this ice cream place and ate 20 scoops of ice cream. After which, we went to Capone's, a bar owned by Isa's former professor.
Christmas Party with MaFia:
Perhaps for the first time this year, I joined in an activity with almost all of my Masters batchmates. We had a Christmas Dinner at Jet's House, along with AMF majors who weren't part of the Masters course. It was a happy night.
Christmas Breakfast with Singapore Friends:
Perhaps ranking high in my favorite days of the year would be December 18, the day after the MaFiA dinner, when I finally met with my Filipino Singapore friends. It has almost been a year since almost all of us met together.
Getting together this time proved to be a happy occasion. I missed hanging out with them. I practically lived and spent 4 months of my life with them. They were my family in Singapore. I just wish we can meet more often.
Monse and Jess, I meet all the time. Smile and Jhoana, living just across the street from school and yet we seldom meet. Gwen who studies in DLSU, living far from Ateneo, though we talk quite often. These girls were part of my Singapore family. Too bad Bonvin had a prior engagement the day before, and Wayne forgot about it.
Christmas Dinner with High School Barkada:
December 20 was another eventful day. For the first time, I agreed to meet on short notice. I met with Gian, Nikko and Aidz. I waited for more than an hour at Ateneo HS for Gian, who was coming in late from home. Although we were late, we somehow arrived at the same time as the other two, who came from work. We ate at New Bombay with some delicious meals.
I was able to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 during its opening day here in Manila. It was my first meeting with Roy Moore, our British friend, who's now living here in Manila for a charity and his Masters study at UP. Jess was also with us for the movie.
I did not watch nor read any of the first 6 books of Harry Potter. I didn't even read the 7th book. So when I watched the film, I was a bit clueless at times, although in all fairness, I was able to follow the story. The movie was quite okay, and with the fact that I can understand it as a stand-alone movie, I must say that it is well-made.
Christmas Dinner with Isa and Nikka:
Last December 11, I had another dinner with Nikka and Isa, this time, for our Christmas Dinner. Unlike the one last month, we decided to watch a movie first before eating. We watched the third installment of the Narnia series: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader". Like HP, I wasn't able to watch the first two installments of the series. However, unlike HP, I was able to easily follow, without parts which I cannot fully understand. Perhaps it's becoming my habit to watch movies without their prequels.
We then ate at Sumo Sam, a Japanese restaurant. Quite expensive, but the food was heavenly. Perhaps what I liked best was their Green Tea. We then went to this ice cream place and ate 20 scoops of ice cream. After which, we went to Capone's, a bar owned by Isa's former professor.
Christmas Party with MaFia:
Perhaps for the first time this year, I joined in an activity with almost all of my Masters batchmates. We had a Christmas Dinner at Jet's House, along with AMF majors who weren't part of the Masters course. It was a happy night.
Christmas Breakfast with Singapore Friends:
Perhaps ranking high in my favorite days of the year would be December 18, the day after the MaFiA dinner, when I finally met with my Filipino Singapore friends. It has almost been a year since almost all of us met together.
Getting together this time proved to be a happy occasion. I missed hanging out with them. I practically lived and spent 4 months of my life with them. They were my family in Singapore. I just wish we can meet more often.
Monse and Jess, I meet all the time. Smile and Jhoana, living just across the street from school and yet we seldom meet. Gwen who studies in DLSU, living far from Ateneo, though we talk quite often. These girls were part of my Singapore family. Too bad Bonvin had a prior engagement the day before, and Wayne forgot about it.
Christmas Dinner with High School Barkada:
December 20 was another eventful day. For the first time, I agreed to meet on short notice. I met with Gian, Nikko and Aidz. I waited for more than an hour at Ateneo HS for Gian, who was coming in late from home. Although we were late, we somehow arrived at the same time as the other two, who came from work. We ate at New Bombay with some delicious meals.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Some Update
AMF Final Group Project: BDO Ops Risk
Last Friday, November 19, we finally got to meet with the company we're going to work with, Banco de Oro's Operational Risk Group. Jman, Toni and I were tasked to come-up with different models from different approaches given a set of data on operational risk of BDO.
Since Operational Risk is the last topic in our Risk Management course, we had to read in advance certain books and readings. We need to read Basel II (specifically the sections on Operational Risk), Operational Risk by Fabozzi et.al., and Operational Risk by Panjer et.al. So far, I have read one, and is halfway with the second one.
Perhaps the only startling thing about this project is that we're going to have to finish this in a matter of weeks (two to three weeks to be exact). We have to work doubly hard for this project.
Busy Schedule and Movie
Perhaps due to my busy schedule in school, and having weekly Saturday sessions in MTG - Makati Center, and add to that my new duties for MTG - DEECO Center, I haven't had much time to watch movies.
From my last blog post, I have only watched the movie, United 93. This movie features the 9/11 tragedy, specifically, United Airlines flight 93, wherein passengers of the said plane fought and tried to control the plane in order for it not to hit the remaining target, the White House, after three passenger planes each hit the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon.
During the tragedy, I was at home, watching TV. I remember it was 10 PM, when we were surfing through the channels. I saw something in CNN, and asked my dad to go back to it, and there we saw one of the twin towers with tons of smoke emanating from it. And all of a sudden, the second plane just hit the other tower. We saw the exact moment the second plane hit, up until the towers crumbled down.
Television:
Glee:
Episode 7: The Substitute
Gwyneth Paltrow was awesome! I didn't know she has a great voice! Although story-wise, there wasn't any much of an added-value. It simply was an episode of song numbers. And I must admit, that among the episodes with this kind of light-story, heavy-song numbers, this is the best one so far.
Episode 8: Furt
There wasn't any song number until the 16th minute of the show, when Sue's mom sang her number. The story was heavy, and it tackled something which other shows just try to evade: bullying.
Bullying is a known fact in High School. It happens all the time, to people perceived as weak, by people who find a weakness in themselves which they try to fight by putting-down others.
I'm glad that Glee tackled the topic in a very realistic manner. Sue, the principal, expelled Karofsky, but the Board of Trustees decided to revert it. It's a simple reality, that there's always no easy way out. There's no fair game in life. We saw Kurt leaving for Dalton Academy, where he feels safe.
The question now is: Will he come back?
The Amazing Race:
Go Nat and Kat! They may not be the strongest team, they had their dumb moments, getting lost all the time, but they surely have shown us that they are good racers.
BTW, I'm not liking the non-12 hour pitstops, and changing departure times to make them leave 5 minutes apart.
The Amazing Race Asia:
I hope we get BOTH Jess and Lani and Richard and Richard in the Finale. And hopefully, one of those two PH teams will win.
Episode tomorrow in South Korea, and it surely will be a Non-Elimination Episode. Hoping for the best.
Last Friday, November 19, we finally got to meet with the company we're going to work with, Banco de Oro's Operational Risk Group. Jman, Toni and I were tasked to come-up with different models from different approaches given a set of data on operational risk of BDO.
Since Operational Risk is the last topic in our Risk Management course, we had to read in advance certain books and readings. We need to read Basel II (specifically the sections on Operational Risk), Operational Risk by Fabozzi et.al., and Operational Risk by Panjer et.al. So far, I have read one, and is halfway with the second one.
Perhaps the only startling thing about this project is that we're going to have to finish this in a matter of weeks (two to three weeks to be exact). We have to work doubly hard for this project.
Busy Schedule and Movie
Perhaps due to my busy schedule in school, and having weekly Saturday sessions in MTG - Makati Center, and add to that my new duties for MTG - DEECO Center, I haven't had much time to watch movies.
From my last blog post, I have only watched the movie, United 93. This movie features the 9/11 tragedy, specifically, United Airlines flight 93, wherein passengers of the said plane fought and tried to control the plane in order for it not to hit the remaining target, the White House, after three passenger planes each hit the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon.
During the tragedy, I was at home, watching TV. I remember it was 10 PM, when we were surfing through the channels. I saw something in CNN, and asked my dad to go back to it, and there we saw one of the twin towers with tons of smoke emanating from it. And all of a sudden, the second plane just hit the other tower. We saw the exact moment the second plane hit, up until the towers crumbled down.
Television:
Glee:
Episode 7: The Substitute
Gwyneth Paltrow was awesome! I didn't know she has a great voice! Although story-wise, there wasn't any much of an added-value. It simply was an episode of song numbers. And I must admit, that among the episodes with this kind of light-story, heavy-song numbers, this is the best one so far.
Episode 8: Furt
There wasn't any song number until the 16th minute of the show, when Sue's mom sang her number. The story was heavy, and it tackled something which other shows just try to evade: bullying.
Bullying is a known fact in High School. It happens all the time, to people perceived as weak, by people who find a weakness in themselves which they try to fight by putting-down others.
I'm glad that Glee tackled the topic in a very realistic manner. Sue, the principal, expelled Karofsky, but the Board of Trustees decided to revert it. It's a simple reality, that there's always no easy way out. There's no fair game in life. We saw Kurt leaving for Dalton Academy, where he feels safe.
The question now is: Will he come back?
The Amazing Race:
Go Nat and Kat! They may not be the strongest team, they had their dumb moments, getting lost all the time, but they surely have shown us that they are good racers.
BTW, I'm not liking the non-12 hour pitstops, and changing departure times to make them leave 5 minutes apart.
The Amazing Race Asia:
I hope we get BOTH Jess and Lani and Richard and Richard in the Finale. And hopefully, one of those two PH teams will win.
Episode tomorrow in South Korea, and it surely will be a Non-Elimination Episode. Hoping for the best.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
First Week of School = Movies and Glee
Deviating from my usual blog posts, I decided to have sub-sections of my posts, for easier identification of the topic being discussed:
School:
First week of school was okay. This week, I volutneered for the LS Bookstore, for the last time in my life. The Bookstore volunteering has been part of my life whenever a regular semester starts, from the second semester of first year up to now. I met a lot of friends through the bookstore.
CS 268 - Modeling and Simulation - I might enjoy this class. Different from my programming classes before, I guess.
AMF 241 - Stochastic Calculus II - Continuation of AMF 240. Last of the hardcore Maths of AMF.
AMF 272 - Risk Management - Finally, the subject which is one of the core of Mathematical Finance courses (or so I believe)
MA 295J.6 - Advanced Operations Research - Thew new CHED rules require O.R. subjects in undergrad. As we didn't have one in the undergrad subjects, I believe that having this as an elective now is just the right move. And I am enjoying this class!
Movies:
As there's still not much to do, school just started this week, and our projects are just beginning to pile-up, I had the chance to watch more movies.
I watched disaster movies, again! This time focusing on volcanic eruptions. I watched Volcano starring Tommy Lee Jones, which was released a few months after Dante's Peak was released. It features a volcano suddenly appearing in downtown LA. The movie has quite a number of scientific loopholes which makes it somehow a failure compared to Dante's Peak.
Next are three BBC/Discovery Channel docu-drama on Volcanoes. The first one is Supervolcano which tackled the possibility of the Yellowstone Caldera erupting. It is believed that the volcano is erupting every 700,000 years. It is now about 640,000 years since the volcano erupted. And from my research, the caldera is swelling in the last few years (although it has decreased its movement in the past year). Will it ever erupt? We'll never know... yet.
The second docu-drama is Krakatoa: The Last Days. I have heard stories before about Krakatoa, an island-volcano in between the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. The whole island disintegrated after a VEI 8 (same level as Mt. Pintubo's eruption in 1991) explosion which lasted for days. The docu-drama featured just that, the last days of Krakatoa. Today, with continuous eruption, the volcano is once again alive, now known as Anak Krakatoa, or the Son of Krakatoa.
The third docu-drama I watched is Pompeii: The Last Day. The movie features the 19th century eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. The whole city and a nearby city was wiped out. With the collpase of the bottom part of the mountain towards the sea, cities opposite the bay were also affected. The movie ends with a cryptic message, that now people have once again come close to the foot of the volcano, but this time, with the population up to 3.5 million people.
Perhaps the only movie that I watched in the past weeks which isn't a disaster movie is the movie Shelter. A friend of mine watched the movie, and I thought why not watch it as well. It's about a guy gifted with the artistic talent who's stuck in the suburbs as he turned down a scholarship from CalArts due to his family situation. They're not well-off, and he and her sister had been working in low-paying jobs to remain afloat. He meets his bestfriend's older brother, who serves as his inspiration to get out of the suburbs, and live a life of his own, without sacrificing his family.
Glee:
Episode 5: The Rocky Horror Show
I didn't like this episode that much. It's a tribute to Rocky Horror, and I haven't watched Rocky Horror. I don't know the story as well. I liked some of the performance, but story-wise, we don't get much from the characters.
Episode 6: Never Been Kissed
This is another emotional episode, I guess. We get to see more story, less performance, which in itself is okay. It is a stark difference from Episode 5. I believe that this episode is one of the good ones. We saw Coach Beiste's humanity when she cried, and uncovered a human side of her. We saw Kurt's struggles in being the only openly-gay student in McKinley HS. Kurt visited Dalton Academy, where he saw a huge difference in treatment of gays. In Dalton, there's a zero-tolerance policy, which makes gays an accepted member of the community. No bullying, no discriminaton. I believe that Kurt will finally get what he wants with Dalton.
Hanging questions:
1. Will Kurt transfer?
My Answer: Perhaps. I have a feeling that Kurt might transfer, and instead of seeing McKinley HS, we might see both schools featured in the show. We saw how Kurt felt happy and how accepted he feels in Dalton.
2. If ever Kurt transfers, who will replace him?
My Answer: Sunshine Corazon? Another person from school as a stand-in? I really don't know. Rumor has it that Sunshine Corazon is staying with Vocal Adrenaline.
School:
First week of school was okay. This week, I volutneered for the LS Bookstore, for the last time in my life. The Bookstore volunteering has been part of my life whenever a regular semester starts, from the second semester of first year up to now. I met a lot of friends through the bookstore.
CS 268 - Modeling and Simulation - I might enjoy this class. Different from my programming classes before, I guess.
AMF 241 - Stochastic Calculus II - Continuation of AMF 240. Last of the hardcore Maths of AMF.
AMF 272 - Risk Management - Finally, the subject which is one of the core of Mathematical Finance courses (or so I believe)
MA 295J.6 - Advanced Operations Research - Thew new CHED rules require O.R. subjects in undergrad. As we didn't have one in the undergrad subjects, I believe that having this as an elective now is just the right move. And I am enjoying this class!
Movies:
As there's still not much to do, school just started this week, and our projects are just beginning to pile-up, I had the chance to watch more movies.
I watched disaster movies, again! This time focusing on volcanic eruptions. I watched Volcano starring Tommy Lee Jones, which was released a few months after Dante's Peak was released. It features a volcano suddenly appearing in downtown LA. The movie has quite a number of scientific loopholes which makes it somehow a failure compared to Dante's Peak.
Next are three BBC/Discovery Channel docu-drama on Volcanoes. The first one is Supervolcano which tackled the possibility of the Yellowstone Caldera erupting. It is believed that the volcano is erupting every 700,000 years. It is now about 640,000 years since the volcano erupted. And from my research, the caldera is swelling in the last few years (although it has decreased its movement in the past year). Will it ever erupt? We'll never know... yet.
The second docu-drama is Krakatoa: The Last Days. I have heard stories before about Krakatoa, an island-volcano in between the islands of Sumatra and Java in Indonesia. The whole island disintegrated after a VEI 8 (same level as Mt. Pintubo's eruption in 1991) explosion which lasted for days. The docu-drama featured just that, the last days of Krakatoa. Today, with continuous eruption, the volcano is once again alive, now known as Anak Krakatoa, or the Son of Krakatoa.
The third docu-drama I watched is Pompeii: The Last Day. The movie features the 19th century eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in Naples, Italy. The whole city and a nearby city was wiped out. With the collpase of the bottom part of the mountain towards the sea, cities opposite the bay were also affected. The movie ends with a cryptic message, that now people have once again come close to the foot of the volcano, but this time, with the population up to 3.5 million people.
Perhaps the only movie that I watched in the past weeks which isn't a disaster movie is the movie Shelter. A friend of mine watched the movie, and I thought why not watch it as well. It's about a guy gifted with the artistic talent who's stuck in the suburbs as he turned down a scholarship from CalArts due to his family situation. They're not well-off, and he and her sister had been working in low-paying jobs to remain afloat. He meets his bestfriend's older brother, who serves as his inspiration to get out of the suburbs, and live a life of his own, without sacrificing his family.
Glee:
Episode 5: The Rocky Horror Show
I didn't like this episode that much. It's a tribute to Rocky Horror, and I haven't watched Rocky Horror. I don't know the story as well. I liked some of the performance, but story-wise, we don't get much from the characters.
Episode 6: Never Been Kissed
This is another emotional episode, I guess. We get to see more story, less performance, which in itself is okay. It is a stark difference from Episode 5. I believe that this episode is one of the good ones. We saw Coach Beiste's humanity when she cried, and uncovered a human side of her. We saw Kurt's struggles in being the only openly-gay student in McKinley HS. Kurt visited Dalton Academy, where he saw a huge difference in treatment of gays. In Dalton, there's a zero-tolerance policy, which makes gays an accepted member of the community. No bullying, no discriminaton. I believe that Kurt will finally get what he wants with Dalton.
Hanging questions:
1. Will Kurt transfer?
My Answer: Perhaps. I have a feeling that Kurt might transfer, and instead of seeing McKinley HS, we might see both schools featured in the show. We saw how Kurt felt happy and how accepted he feels in Dalton.
2. If ever Kurt transfers, who will replace him?
My Answer: Sunshine Corazon? Another person from school as a stand-in? I really don't know. Rumor has it that Sunshine Corazon is staying with Vocal Adrenaline.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
A Due Date
November 6, 2010
Today was a rather special day for me. I basically started the day late, teaching an MTG session in Makati. The topic my grade 5 kids had was Logic. I must say, they had difficulty grasping the topic, as it is not really the Math most students are used to. It's more of a combination of puzzles, riddles and simple logic.
Then came the fun part. I was supposed to end at 4:20, but I went overtime due to the game we had in class. Nikka was already waiting for me outside, in a taxi, as I told her to pick me up before going to Power Plant Mall. And she did wait for me, for about 5 or so minutes.
It was raining when I went out of MES, and so when we got to the mall, it was still raining. We saw Isa a few minutes later, and we decided to buy tickets immediately. We were debating on whether we watch Social Network for 2.5 hours, so we end exactly at 9, or we watch a shorter film, which starts earlier, so we have time after the moview to do some chit-chat. We chose the second option and instead watched Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead.
We then ate at this Korean Restaurant, Kaya. It's not too cheap, nor is it too expensive. The food was great!
We then lined up to buy popcorn and tacos. The clock hit 6:10, and we thought we're late. As we entered the moview theater, the lights were still on. We chose seats at the far back of the cinema so we can get a full view. But low and behold, as I went on to the first step, the lights went out, signalling that the movie is starting after a few more trailers. We were walking up the theater, barely seeing where we are stepping.
At first, I thought the movie is boring. The first half was dragging, and I just don't get the laughs from it. It basically featured two people who met, do not know each other. One seemed to get all the luck in the world, having a positive outlook, The other one seemed to be getting all the wrong things, with a negative outlook. So I thought the story will just be that. I had a negative feeling about the movie then.
But then came a part when all three of us broke into laughter. And from then on, it just went uphill, and we ended up enjoying the movie.
Perhaps the highlight of the movie experience is not the moview itself, but it is how the people in the cinema laughing in unison, whenever there was a comedic part of the film. And best of all, the man beside Isa was really laughing so hard, to the point that instead of laughing at what was happening in the film, we were laughing more on how the person was laughing. Not in any negative way, but when you hear that kind of laugh, you won't be able to help yourself but to laugh as well.
Anyway, after the movie, we had dessert, and talked more.
The whole meet-up with them was fun for me, as it is my only time this sem break to actually meet-up with my old friends. I'm glad to have done that.
Today was a rather special day for me. I basically started the day late, teaching an MTG session in Makati. The topic my grade 5 kids had was Logic. I must say, they had difficulty grasping the topic, as it is not really the Math most students are used to. It's more of a combination of puzzles, riddles and simple logic.
Then came the fun part. I was supposed to end at 4:20, but I went overtime due to the game we had in class. Nikka was already waiting for me outside, in a taxi, as I told her to pick me up before going to Power Plant Mall. And she did wait for me, for about 5 or so minutes.
It was raining when I went out of MES, and so when we got to the mall, it was still raining. We saw Isa a few minutes later, and we decided to buy tickets immediately. We were debating on whether we watch Social Network for 2.5 hours, so we end exactly at 9, or we watch a shorter film, which starts earlier, so we have time after the moview to do some chit-chat. We chose the second option and instead watched Due Date with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead.
We then ate at this Korean Restaurant, Kaya. It's not too cheap, nor is it too expensive. The food was great!
We then lined up to buy popcorn and tacos. The clock hit 6:10, and we thought we're late. As we entered the moview theater, the lights were still on. We chose seats at the far back of the cinema so we can get a full view. But low and behold, as I went on to the first step, the lights went out, signalling that the movie is starting after a few more trailers. We were walking up the theater, barely seeing where we are stepping.
At first, I thought the movie is boring. The first half was dragging, and I just don't get the laughs from it. It basically featured two people who met, do not know each other. One seemed to get all the luck in the world, having a positive outlook, The other one seemed to be getting all the wrong things, with a negative outlook. So I thought the story will just be that. I had a negative feeling about the movie then.
But then came a part when all three of us broke into laughter. And from then on, it just went uphill, and we ended up enjoying the movie.
Perhaps the highlight of the movie experience is not the moview itself, but it is how the people in the cinema laughing in unison, whenever there was a comedic part of the film. And best of all, the man beside Isa was really laughing so hard, to the point that instead of laughing at what was happening in the film, we were laughing more on how the person was laughing. Not in any negative way, but when you hear that kind of laugh, you won't be able to help yourself but to laugh as well.
Anyway, after the movie, we had dessert, and talked more.
The whole meet-up with them was fun for me, as it is my only time this sem break to actually meet-up with my old friends. I'm glad to have done that.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Are You a Foreign Student?
So yesterday, November 4, was the designated day for our enrollment, the last time I'm ever going to do this in Ateneo (unless I crazily decide to take another graduate course).
Everything was smooth-sailing. I thought of taking snapshots of the process, as it is going to be my last. So when I entered the SS Conference Rooms 1 and 2 to get my grades and registration form, I forgot to take a snapshot. Why? I really don't know. Haha. I guess I just forgot.
We were given these slips of paper, one showing our basic information, and another informing us of the Graduate AISIS (More like IVLE for registration purposes). We're getting this... even though we're already graduating in March. The use of this will just be for viewing grades, at least for us graduating AMF majors.
My grades were okay, not high, not too low. I guess it's okay, although I must say, "I could have done better". I guess this will be one of the factors that will push me to work hard and give my all this last semester. Hopefully, I can really deliver this time.
Moving on, after SS Conference Rooms 1 and 2, we were told to go up to SS Conference Rooms 3 and 4 for the Enlistment Proper. One of the checkers, who "checked" my reg form, asked me "Are you a foreign student?". I guess it's part of their standard procedure, but then I still said no, and asked her why she though I am a foreign student. What startled me is her reply: "Oh, I thought you are kasi you have an accent." I didn't know that I had an accent. Maybe she heard me wrong, or maybe I really had one and was just unaware of it.
And hence I got my schedule: Classes only during Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Yey!
9:30-10:30 CS 268 - Computer Modeling - Teknomo
10:30-11:30 AMF 241 - Stochastic Calculus II - Marasigan
13:30-14:30 AMF 272 - Risk Management - Cabral and De Lara-Tuprio
14:30-15:30 MA 295J.6 - Advanced Operations Research - Mina and Ruiz
I hope this semester will be a good one. I really do. I want to end this senester with a blast. I said this last year, same time, before the start of the last semester of my undergraduate course. This time, I want this to come true.
May God bless us all.
Everything was smooth-sailing. I thought of taking snapshots of the process, as it is going to be my last. So when I entered the SS Conference Rooms 1 and 2 to get my grades and registration form, I forgot to take a snapshot. Why? I really don't know. Haha. I guess I just forgot.
We were given these slips of paper, one showing our basic information, and another informing us of the Graduate AISIS (More like IVLE for registration purposes). We're getting this... even though we're already graduating in March. The use of this will just be for viewing grades, at least for us graduating AMF majors.
My grades were okay, not high, not too low. I guess it's okay, although I must say, "I could have done better". I guess this will be one of the factors that will push me to work hard and give my all this last semester. Hopefully, I can really deliver this time.
Moving on, after SS Conference Rooms 1 and 2, we were told to go up to SS Conference Rooms 3 and 4 for the Enlistment Proper. One of the checkers, who "checked" my reg form, asked me "Are you a foreign student?". I guess it's part of their standard procedure, but then I still said no, and asked her why she though I am a foreign student. What startled me is her reply: "Oh, I thought you are kasi you have an accent." I didn't know that I had an accent. Maybe she heard me wrong, or maybe I really had one and was just unaware of it.
And hence I got my schedule: Classes only during Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Yey!
9:30-10:30 CS 268 - Computer Modeling - Teknomo
10:30-11:30 AMF 241 - Stochastic Calculus II - Marasigan
13:30-14:30 AMF 272 - Risk Management - Cabral and De Lara-Tuprio
14:30-15:30 MA 295J.6 - Advanced Operations Research - Mina and Ruiz
I hope this semester will be a good one. I really do. I want to end this senester with a blast. I said this last year, same time, before the start of the last semester of my undergraduate course. This time, I want this to come true.
May God bless us all.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Sem Break
When the semestral break comes, bum time, DVD Marathons and pig-out sessions are the usual things students do. Semestral breaks, happening after the First Semester, give students time to relax, enjoy life, give the mind a rest after 18 straight weeks of study (for Ateneo students).
As this is my last "sem break", I would want it to be a special one. Semestral Break started October 17, 2010, and will end on November 7, 2010. A pretty short one as it is usually 4 weeks of vacation for us.
To date, I have stayed all-day at home only for one day (October 28, 2010). I have been going out, fixing documents I need, going to places such as Tagaytay City for the MTG International Mathematics Educators Conference (as a registration person, not a participant).
Now going to the fun part. I have watched movies, again! I downloaded some via torrent, and watched others from TV. In one night, I watched thriller movies Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination (aka Final Destination 4). As I have watched the first two movies of the same name when I was younger, I decided to watch these movies in time for Halloween. Here in the Philippines, it is not a common thing to actually celebrate and party during the Halloween season. We instead spend October 31, November 1 and/or November 2 in cemeteries, visiting our dead loved ones, paying respects to them. It is a Philippine tradition we call "Undas".
From Horror, I decided to watch light movies, including Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and Grown-Ups. The former talks about Cats (Meows group) and Dogs (Paws group) working together to stop "evil cat" Kitty Galore. She was a former Meows agent. In one of her field works, she fell into a tub of hair-removal cream, losing all her hair. Without hair, her human caretakers didn't recognize her and got rid of her. She seeked revenge on dogs and humans, and later on, even on her fellow cats.
On TV, I also watched Shooter and iRobot. I can't say I liked these movies, but they're so-so. Not my type of movies, I guess.
And just today, I watched two disaster films, Locusts and Prinaha 3D. I just seem to not get over disaster films. As their titles connote, the films are about animals/insects affecting humans, by eating their food and/or eating humans themselves alive.
As this is my last "sem break", I would want it to be a special one. Semestral Break started October 17, 2010, and will end on November 7, 2010. A pretty short one as it is usually 4 weeks of vacation for us.
To date, I have stayed all-day at home only for one day (October 28, 2010). I have been going out, fixing documents I need, going to places such as Tagaytay City for the MTG International Mathematics Educators Conference (as a registration person, not a participant).
Now going to the fun part. I have watched movies, again! I downloaded some via torrent, and watched others from TV. In one night, I watched thriller movies Final Destination 3 and The Final Destination (aka Final Destination 4). As I have watched the first two movies of the same name when I was younger, I decided to watch these movies in time for Halloween. Here in the Philippines, it is not a common thing to actually celebrate and party during the Halloween season. We instead spend October 31, November 1 and/or November 2 in cemeteries, visiting our dead loved ones, paying respects to them. It is a Philippine tradition we call "Undas".
From Horror, I decided to watch light movies, including Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore and Grown-Ups. The former talks about Cats (Meows group) and Dogs (Paws group) working together to stop "evil cat" Kitty Galore. She was a former Meows agent. In one of her field works, she fell into a tub of hair-removal cream, losing all her hair. Without hair, her human caretakers didn't recognize her and got rid of her. She seeked revenge on dogs and humans, and later on, even on her fellow cats.
On TV, I also watched Shooter and iRobot. I can't say I liked these movies, but they're so-so. Not my type of movies, I guess.
And just today, I watched two disaster films, Locusts and Prinaha 3D. I just seem to not get over disaster films. As their titles connote, the films are about animals/insects affecting humans, by eating their food and/or eating humans themselves alive.
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