Stress Plus More

Don’t you just hate it that whenever you have something planned like a date or a simple girls night out, a zit suddenly appears right smack in the middle of your forehead? Or worse, right in the middle of your nose, ala Rudolf? I do. But my dilemma is not for a date, but for my dreaded thesis defense. It had been weeks of long preparations and sleepless nights preparing for my thesis presentation. First defense will always be the most nerve-wracking, and even the most powerful acne treatment won't prevent these zits to appear. It’s all about the stress, and the thought that you have to appear as perfect as you can in front of your advisers makes one more prone to pimples.

Alternatives

Me and my brother have been faithfully convincing my mother to file her retirement 6 years earlier. We’ve talked about this a couple of months ago, but my mother insisted that she could still pull it of. That she could still work on improving her health. But I am at the hospital right now, and she’s the one in dextrose. I told her we have plans when the time comes that she decided to give up work or when her health decided to give up on her. We did not do all the fuzz of talking to business plan consultants or other experts whatsoever. I suggested we put up our own Internet Cafe since all of us fancies everything about the world wide web. Or we could put up a restaurant at a nearby school.

The possibilities are endless, but we have not reached a decision yet…

Moviefone’s 2009 25 Hottest Stars Under 25

I’ve been an avid follower of the 25 Hottest Stars Under 25. It is an annual list of the hottest, freshest and most successful stars in Hollywood under 25. This year, official sponsor Moviefone released the names that made it to this year’s coveted list. And of course, who else deserves to top this coveted list other than Robert Pattinson. The past two years have been huge for the British-born actor, far far away from his humble beginnings as Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Here’s are the photos of the stars who made it to this years awesome list:

    

Terno Inferno This Saturday @ Saguijo

Haven’t been going to gigs these past couple of months because of my weekend part-time job. I cannot say that I am a regular, but I always try to attend Terno Recording’s Terno Inferno event as much as I can. The bands featured in the event are the most amazing band you could devour your listening pleasure with these days. Plus, environment at a Terno event is always low-key. No screaming, over dressed groupies; just pure quality Filipino music.

Check out this Saturday’s Terno Inferno at Cafe Saguijo in Makati if you do not have any plans yet. Gig starts at 10pm with Php150 door entrance.

Toys

Never really enjoyed them much when I was a kid. I remember my mother buying me one rag doll when I was three, and books afterwards. All books and no “normal” toys like my playmates used to have. My friends would always find it weird that whenever they asked me if I still have a toy or a doll from my childhood, I would answer NO . But I am ok with it, though. The scars on my knees and arms are a reminder how I enjoyed playing street games with my friends instead of staying at home and play with toys on my own. If only we had these bounce houses during those times, then I will not be having these beautiful childhood scars. :D

Tuesday Couch Potatoes #6 – Alice in Wonderland

It’s my first entry for Tuesday Couch Potatoes. The goal is to post a movie you have seen based on the week’s theme. This week’s theme is Your Favorite Disney Fairy Tale Movie.

Mine would have to be Alice In Wonderland. :D

I love Alice and I will never get tired of watching Disney’s adaptation of this classic penned by Lewis Carroll. The interesting characters she met in the story are the things that makes me want to put this film on my DVD in loop mode. From Mr. Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire cat, the singing flowers, the caterpillar who certainly knows how to spell and of course, The Queen Of Hearts.

The story is having a whole new revamp as Tim Burton creates his own adaptation, coming out next year. Here are some photos of the casts and a sneak peek of the latest Alice In Wonderland film:

I Want To Go On A Road Trip!

Months of home-work-home isn’t fun. Me and my friends had series of road trips last year, but there are bazillions of tasks at work that we cannot squeeze in time for spontaneity such as road trips. Even having to contact people who's job is always on the road like moving companies Los Angeles would be a great fix.

I just need a breather.

Why Am I Teaching Part-Time Again?

It has been three months since I started my part-time job as a teacher. I handle 35 students and discuss two different subjects every Saturday: Introduction To Humanities which mainly tackles about the different theories about almost all forms of art; and Study and Thinking skills where I need to teach my class, well actually review my class with the basics in sentence construction and research skills.

To be honest, I am having a hard time discussing the latter. Oh yes, surprise! surprise! a writer having a hard time discussing the things that one should know by heart. Vocabulary skills to a writer should be like breathing, and yet every Saturday it seems like I am always underwater, grasping for air while sharks throw questions with gleaming mockery. Some of my students in the English class know a lot more that me that I end up creating excuses when they throw questions at my face. I refer to most of them as a form of mockery since most of the inquiries does not make sense. You can see in their faces that they’re trying to test you on how much you know about the subject without even listening whenever I try to explain to them my answer. Well, it is my fault. Big portion of it is my fault since half the time, I do not know what it is that I needed to talk about. I am scared for these kids since they are not getting anything good from me every week.

Mind you, most of these kids that I am referring to are between the age of 18 to 40. College freshmen at the local State University.

Decided to dismiss my class 30 minutes earlier because of allergies. I couldn’t stop sneezing since this morning, and it got worse by 3 o’clock that I cannot even discuss the things the needs to be discussed for the afternoon’s lesson. Good thing, I have a back-up plan if my conditioned worsened: check and discuss the items they’ve had on the exam two weeks ago. Yes, it’s two weeks ago and only had the time to check and finalized their scores today. I had two students who couldn’t make it on exam day because of personal mishaps, and only had the chance to take the exams today. It was a 100-item exam and the student who got the highest score from my English class was 83. Not bad.

It’s 4:10pm as I am typing this entry. I gave a project for the students to work on three weeks ago and I gave today’s date as their deadline. And of course, not all of them are ready to pass the exam and needed more time to finish them. So I said I’ll be staying here in the room until 5pm to wait for their project.

Good thing I have my laptop with me to spend the idle time with.

Living Like The Kents

Been chatting with my friend who’s based in Virginia. He and his family runs a farm together with his uncle. He shared that he now know how it feels running a farm like Clark Kent does on our favorite TV show, Smallville. He had been a fan, well we had been a fan of the show since its pilot episode A shift from the bustling streets of Makati to the foggy mornings of the farm had been a good change for him. You see, he has asthma since he was 7 and been struggling with it for 15 years. The city pollution made it worst, plus the stress the common traffic and the dusty streets of their family’s former neighborhood.

Keeping a farm isn’t an easy job. Feeding the horses and cows are his main tasks. Though ordering horse supplies had been a breeze because all he needs to do is to place orders online. The supplies is then delivered to their farm, saving him a lot of time and effort. 

Wordless Wednesday -- Banga