Since it's being sung in our parish during Marian feast days as well as at the of the Mass on First Fridays, I decided to memorize the Salve Regina and did so earlier today. Had to review the Gloria as well since I had nearly forgotten some parts from not reciting it as frequently as I do the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri. Next in line? The Credo, the Magnificat and the Memorare, a favorite Marian prayer of mine.
Ha, ha, ha. I should have followed my instincts when I first applied for admission to university and thought of choosing music, graphic design, architecture, engineering or biology.
There's a major blooper on main page of the the tennis section of Yahoo! Sports: a headline reads "Jankovic, Sela to meet in Beijing Finals". I did a double take when I read that and thought, isn't Sela an ATP player? Or does he have a sister playing in the WTA? So I clicked on the link to the article whose title was obviously corrected and now reads "No. 1 Jankovic, unseeded Sela into finals in Beijing". Phew! For a while I thought it was a "remake" of that match between Billy Jean King and some male tennis player long time ago.
The newly formed resident choir of our parish--for which I'm singing alto!--held its third rehearsal earlier tonight. Our conductor was pretty sharp as usual, quickly correcting us whenever we sang sharp or flat and when we were tended to drag or rush with our singing. That is, except for a few minutes when we were all singing together and because we didn't sound right, he kept interrupting to check on the singing of the altos. This happened two or three times until--as much as I hated to embarrass him by correcting his singing--I mustered the courage to approach him and say, "Ikaw yata ang late," referring to the tenor part which he was singing incorrectly because he kept coming in a measure late.
I've had so much to do these past two months or so: on top of my teaching duties, I have now my curriculum committee to attend to, more projects and journal papers to work on, and have become a more active member of our parish's music ministry. So much so I haven't had much time to do the "extra" things I used to do. My Federer blog is woefully behind the times, Federer having just won his fifth straight US Open title while my latest post still laments the thrashing he got from Nadal at the finals of Roland Garros. Uploading new photos to my Flickr account has come to halt. And there are my subscriptions at Google Reader. I won't dare take a peek; I probably have more than thousand unread articles by now!
My father found "our" beloved stray male cat--the one who loved to stay on the doormat of our front door--dead under our van in the garage late this evening. My parents last saw him alive yesterday morning, all beaten up and grievously wounded after what was apparently a ferocious fight with another tom cat. Since it was too late in the evening (nearly 11pm) to go dig a grave in our garden for the poor thing, we had to wrap the body in newspaper, place it into a trash bag and leave it under our santol tree in the meantime. We plan to dig a grave and bury it tomorrow morning.
I got so bored tonight--or rather I got tired of doing the work I brought home with me--that I decided to challenge myself in another way by memorizing another Latin prayer. This time it's the Gloria. I thought it would be handy to know it by heart because once we start learning to sing Gregorian chant, I can at least focus on the melody and not have to worry about the words. Surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Perhaps I was now more familiar with the Latin root words.
I've practically lost my weekends this month to illness or to being under the weather:
You might say that at least I got some rest, but then it also caused me to fall behind at work--which is the reason why things are so hectic nowadays that I haven't much time to write.
Late yesterday afternoon, the sunny hot weather we had since the morning suddenly turned for the worse. Winds picked up alarmingly, the sky darkened and lightning flashed nearly every minute. While I stood in my office wondering what to do (the power had just gone out as usual), I noticed a commotion going out just in front of our office building. Several people were gathering and screaming while pointing excitedly at what was apparently a terrifying sight above the building. Having not much to do anyway I ran out to see what it was all about. A student quickly told me, "Ma'am, may ipo-ipo!" And sure enough in the sky above I caught sight of a funnel cloud that quickly dissipated a few seconds later. Then we all ran back inside the building as it started to rain.
Thanks to my illness, I had no choice but to miss out on auditioning for the resident choir being formed at our parish. There was one audition last Thursday and another scheduled this evening after the 5:30pm mass. Our cantor who is in-charge of the resident choir was apparently expecting me to show up because he sent me a text message just earlier asking if I would be auditioning this afternoon. He was also hoping to hear the accompaniment I had made for two new songs we were going to learn. I had to tell him that I planned to audition but got sick and so couldn't come.
One thing I don't like about local channels showing live events is how they cover the event: they literally cover or hide footage with so much commercials. The live coverage by Solar Entertainment of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics at Beijing is a prime example. During the early part of the ceremonies which featured performances, the commercials were tolerable. But the network simply went too far during the parade of athletes into the stadium: three minutes of live footage would be followed by nearly eight minutes of commercials! I got so fed up I surfed around for another channel and settled on an Indonesian channel showing the same thing. Not only were there just short one minute commercials every thirty minutes or so, they made sure that they got back to where they left off before the commercial break so that one didn't miss a thing! It makes me wonder why we are encouraged to "Buy Filipino" if it often means patronizing poor quality and service.
My throat started feeling sore yesterday morning and when I developed a fever (37.8C) by the early evening, I felt at once that this was something bad. It reminded me of the flu I came down with just a little over eleven years ago that kept me out of work for nearly two weeks. I took paracetamol and an antitussive right away which thankfully allowed me to get some rest. But while I stopped coughing and my temperature went back down to almost normal, my nose decided to get into the Olympic spirit this afternoon: it started running. Sigh.
This semester has been incredibly a hectic one that I have hardly found time to stop, reflect and write. Today was a perfect example of a busy day. My seminar classes--which included additional two-hour sessions to make up for the time lost due to that mini disaster we had two weeks ago--took up the entire morning literally. Then I managed to grab a quick lunch afterwards--McDonald's cheeseburger meal was the quickest I could get and the quickest I could chow down--before facing another full afternoon schedule administering exams to the students of one of my classes. This lasted til well after 6pm, thanks to a five-minute interruption courtesy of a power outage. And now I am desperate to get enough rest in preparation for tomorrow's classes.
I had not been interested in watching any of the movies being shown on tv until I caught a glimpse of Edward Norton starring in what looked like a period piece being shown on Star Movies early this evening. It turned out to be the movie entitled The Illusionist which I vaguely remembered was being frequently compared with another movie about a magician, The Prestige, that was released in the same year (2005?). I was hooked at once by the storyline but was even more mesmerized by the haunting musical score. I naturally waited until the credits came on to find out who the composer was. And no wonder, it was Philip Glass! That's definitely another movie soundtrack going onto my wish list.
This morning I received a text message announcing another promo from Globe in which they were giving away a brand new Honda City as the grand prize. My first thought then was, why would I want to trouble myself with a car at this time when gasoline prices have been skyrocketing?
I felt strangely compelled to attend today's afternoon mass even if I was shamefully twenty minutes late. The reason for this became clear when after the mass I ran into our church music group's cantor who had long wanted to discuss certain choir matters with me. As it eventually turned out, we got stuck conversing about many other things for nearly an hour! When I arrived home nearly half past seven, I was not surprised to find my parents wondering why I didn't come home around 6pm as usual.
I'm currently handling a course offered through distance mode at a sister university. I hadn't handled the course for a number of years now because of all the stress that comes with having to answer emails and checking out the course website for my student's queries. I thought I'd give it another try this semester. But this morning I took one glance at all 43 email messages that had come in from my students and were clogging my inbox and realized once again that it was an extremely bad decision to make.
At today's reunion among my mother's retired co-workers--many of whom I had not seen for years myself--I was asked the usual question, "Are you married already?" My negative answer was, as expected, followed by disappointment and an admonition--albeit a good-natured one--to get married soon. Of course, given that all but one of the people at the reunion are married people ,the general consensus at the gathering would be that marriage is the ideal vocation. At such situations, I'm really tempted to fire back with the question, what's is so wrong with being single?
Beware! this has an ending that might sound corny to you. For the first time in months I took the road that goes over "our hill" in order to get to this morning's Sunday mass. Although it is shorter than the one I usually take to go to work, I had not been taking this particular road because of the numerous potholes that I have to avoid along the way. In fact, sometimes one would have no choice but to fall into one in order to avoid another, to the detriment of the car's suspension. Anyway, the last time I took this road, most of the holes had been filled. But now after several downpours and the other week's typhoon, it's full of holes again. That is, holey thrice over so to speak. So I've christened it the Sanctus road.
My father is complaining once again about all the hard work he has to do. Quite frankly, he has only himself to blame. We usually offer to help him or else hire somebody to help him but he says he would rather do the work himself and even refuses to teach someone else how to do something. I don't think he knows how to delegate work and doesn't trust anybody well enough to let them do the work instead.
We're going to have some twenty guests over tomorrow for lunch during a reunion of retirees from the office where my mother used to work. So we're in a mad scramble here at home to prepare our daylight basement to receive our guests. The tablecloths on the tables downstairs had to be changed, dust wiped off chairs that came out from storage and electric fans put in strategic places. My mother brought out from our buffet the silverware and dinnerware which rarely see the light of day except when we have company then I helped wash, wipe and arrange them downstairs on the kitchen counter.
Earlier I searched for an online tool--that is a way to keep track of where you are--for praying the rosary and came across one that included the Latin version of the prayers said in the rosary. I'm not sure what got into me then but I was intrigued and proceeded to say the rosary using the Latin versions of the Our Father, Hail Mary and the Glory Be. Eventually I memorized them--although I still recite the Pater Noster rather slowly. It was interesting though to analyze the Latin versions and notice patterns in order to guess Latin equivalents (sicut = as, nunc = now), root words (have been familiar with most actually) and what certain suffixes meant (like the "toribus" in "peccatoribus" and "debitoribus"). And then to realize that the English versions were not necessarily faithful to the original Latin ("world without end" in the Gloria Patri).
Tonight's news on tv reported that several school children did not attend class today because of the news that was spread around that an earthquake was predicted to hit the country today. I myself did not receive the text message warning everyone of the "earthquake" although I first heard about the rumor two days ago. Of course, I dismissed it as nonsense. I just can't believe that school children who are supposedly being taught to think rationally and scientifically--and not to mention, the adults who are their parents and prevented them from attending school-- could be so gullible.
Earlier this afternoon, I presided over a meeting as committee chair for the first time--the first actually in several years. Last time I was committee chair, I was completely lost about what to do during meetings and felt rather intimidated because I was in fact the youngest member of the committee by several years. In other words, they were forgettable experiences. This time, by the grace of God, things went more smoothly; I think I'm still the youngest in the group but I'm wiser and feel more confident now. I just hope I didn't miss out on anything important.
I've been monitoring my weight these past couple of months ever since I've discovered that I've lost weight since February. And the latest is I have continued to lose weight: My weight lately has been hovering around 107 and 108 lbs--that's two or three lbs down from last time! The cause remains a complete mystery to me. Things are definitely more hectic at work now that we're back in the regular semester and I'm beginning to eat snacks again once in a while. So it can't be due to lesser stress during the summer months.
When I showed up at work this morning, I was greeted with the news that a water pipe had burst on the second floor above our offices, sending water down through the ceiling above the first floor and into a number of offices. My office was spared--except for water that leaked under the door and soaked some old papers and boxes on the floor--but our main office, library and supply room got the brunt of the flood. Everything there--books, documents, equipment (computers and printers!), supplies--got soaked by the water that rained down from the ceiling. The administrative staff in those office are now in the process of drying out their things in the hope that many can still be salvaged.
I was told that last night's get-together with high-school was at 8pm at a local restaurant. I was anxious to be there on time and in fact arrived there just before 8pm. To my dismay, I found that I was the first one there. And no one arrived until nearly half an hour later! Then the rest started arriving after 9pm. I have to say that I'm totally fed up with this so-called Filipino time.
Last night I attended a get-together with my high school classmates for the first time in nearly four years. As expected the conversation was typically about our jobs, children (among those who were married of course) and how to get in touch with our other classmates. That's when I found that some of my classmates, who get together to play tennis regularly, were Federer fans like me. And what's more, some were even much more fanatic followers than I ever had been: while I was merely disappointed when Federer lost to Nadal in Wimbledon, one of them got so depressed she couldn't sleep for a couple of days and even had her hair cut short to give vent to her feelings.
I didn't expect last night's Wimbledon finals between Federer and Nadal to be the epic battle that it turned out to be. In fact, I thought all was lost when Federer fell behind two sets to love. But I found that I had totally underestimated the champion in him. So it came as a complete surprise when I woke up in the wee hours of the morning (I had fallen asleep while waiting for the first rain delay to end) to find Federer leading 5-2 in the third set tie-break. It's just a pity that Lady Luck had to side with somebody in the deciding set. But I must say, there definitely were no losers at the end of this match.
The finals between the Williams sisters apparently presented the sports network covering the event a bit of a dilemma. During the first few minutes of the match, I was perplexed to see that the onscreen scoreboard simply displayed "Williams" and "Williams". This is of course understandable since normally only the last names of the players are shown. Even so I thought, surely they can't keep it that way throughout the match! Luckily somebody at the network must have finally realized that it was confusing because a few games later the scoreboard read "S Williams" and "V Williams". That for me was much better--but apparently not for somebody at the network because now the scoreboard reads "Serena" and "Venus".
I must be getting old. This morning, as I was fixing up my hair to get ready to go to work I couldn't find my dark blue hair scrunchy. I looked for it all over my room, the closet and even in the bathroom but couldn't find it at all--although I swore I could see it somewhere in my mind's eye. As I was about to give up, I reached up to my head and touched the base of my ponytail--and there it was! Of course being on the back of my head, I couldn't see it at all the whole time! I must have put it on automatically after brushing my ponytail. Sigh.
The stray cat at the office seems to have settled into its role as our official mascot unusually well: This morning I spotted it sleeping soundly not on the floor in the hallway but on the top chair of the pile of monoblock chairs delivered the other day and left just outside the main office. And it has began fearlessly approaching students and staff alike for a cuddle.
As I mentioned just earlier, I went to put gasoline into the nearly empty gas tank of my car. But of course, I first had to withdraw extra cash from the ATM since gasoline prices had risen nearly 50% since the last time I bought some gasoline. Sure enough, with the price of gasoline at Php59 per liter I had to spend Php2550 for a tankful of unleaded gasoline. Ouch!
We had not just one but two downpours today. The first one came as I was driving out to buy gasoline this afternoon. It was so difficult to see through the sheets of water coming down the windshield that I didn't see the hump on the road ahead until the nearly last minute. Phew! The second downpour came as I was doing some quick shopping at the supermarket after buying gasoline. I had to wait until it stopped to avoid getting soaked when I went back to my car. One good thing though about those downpours though was that my car got a good wash--and I didn't even have to bother wiping it dry to make sure the water doesn't dry into white spots!
This morning I found one of the stray cats living at the back of our office building relaxing along our hallway--which, by the way, is normally off limits to all stray cats there. I stopped to greet it before walking toward my office. To my surprise, it started following me and even sidled up to the door of my office when I inserted my key into the lock. When a colleague passing by saw this, he told me that this very same cat had entered his office earlier and refused to leave. I had to wait until the cat got tired waiting and started walking away before I opened the door and quickly slipped into my office.
Among the many renovations planned this year on our parish church was the addition of a choir loft at the rear of the church. Today, our church choir finally got to use it for the first time when we sang during the 5:30pm mass. Being up there above everybody was certainly different and gave us an unobstructed view of the altar even if it meant having to suffer from the heat radiating down from the roof and carrying up all our paraphernalia.
This morning's meeting on curricular proposals was supposed to be short since there was only one curricular proposal to be taken up--and it was a simple proposal to abolish an outdated course. As the proponent of said proposal which was actually tabled by the committee a year ago, I hoped that things would go without a hitch this time around. Boy, was I completely wrong: More issues were raised in the ensuing (heated) discussion that lasted nearly an hour! In the end the proposal was tabled one more time and although I admittedly learned something about certain university academic rules, I came out of that meeting pretty much battered and shell-shocked after the unexpected battle.
I missed an opportunity to be part of history this morning when I showed up on time 7am) for a pictorial--the results of which would be published in a coffee table book to commemorate a special occasion in our university--but had to leave because of my 8am lecture class before things even got started, thanks to so-called "Filipino time". Darn! The others there were actually urging me not to hold my class; but having already missed a class due to last week's holiday, I couldn't afford to let my class fall further behind and at the same time push back the schedule of lab exercises by another week, could I?
Late this afternoon, I was shocked to received a text message from my mother that she and my father were at the hospital emergency room because my father had been stung by a wasp. He had gone outside to feed our cat and water plants the plants near our back porch when he was attacked by a wasp that descended on him from the wasp's nest hanging near our porch. The wasp stung him on the back of the head and then again on the hand when he swatted the insect away. At the hospital, he was injected with a dose of antihistamine and is now back home and resting. (In the meantime, I made sure I wore a hat when I myself went out to the garden to cautiously retrieve a t-shirt that I had laundered this morning and hung out to dry.)
I could hardly sleep a wink last night and consequently got just a couple hours of sleep. I'm not sure what the cause of this sudden insomnia is. Could it be because of the exhilaration of finally getting a song together at last night's music seminar? Or could it be due to the prospect of not having any more meetings in the coming Mondays?
Like I mentioned last time, tonight's seminar was the last in the series. With it came not only feelings of relief that it was finally all over but also of sadness because it meant that I will no longer be receiving my weekly dose of music--although I can of course always practice my piano on weekends, but that's entirely a different thing. Our seminar speaker, who himself admitted that he had always looked forward to these meetings, however assured us that this might not be the last as he was planning on giving another music seminar series but this time on Gregorian chant. Now that is certainly something to look forward to!
Tonight's seminar workshop on the elements of music was the last in the series. The lectures having ended last week, the participants spent the session applying what they were taught in the past eight weeks to learn a new choral piece. The seminar speaker went off to teach the men the tenor and bass parts while I was given the responsibility to teach the ladies the soprano and alto parts. When we all sang together (with me providing accompaniment with my keyboard) after about three quarters of an hour of practice , I felt once again the thrill and a proud sense of accomplishment that comes when one finally tackles a piece of music and hears the result of all the hard work put into it.
I ran into our church choir group's cantor--who happens to also be teaching but at another department--at this morning's meeting and we decided to sit together. When we had a good laugh over yesterday's choir mix-up he quite rightly said, "At least there's only person to blame for the whole thing and it's T!" Then when an elderly colleague requested to change a student's grade that he had erroneously copied from his record book to the grade sheet, the poor fellow had a hard time reading his own letter which was being shown using an overhead projector. But because we could read the letter quite well from where we sat--and we were seated farther away--our cantor whispered to me, "Now we know why he made a mistake!"
The church choir I belonged to had long understood that we were singing for this today's afternoon mass--that is, until our coordinator suddenly sent a text message last night (Saturday) that he had just instructed another choir that very same evening to sing in our place since we would be singing next week instead. Knowing that the other choir had precisely requested that somebody else sing during this Sunday's mass because of a conflict in schedule, I was shocked and puzzled by this sudden change--but I didn't protest or complain because I thought the coordinator knew what he was doing. When today finally rolled around however and I attended the afternoon mass, to my horror I saw that there was no choir! Oh, well.
Now here's a cool way of creating art from dirt literally: the Reverse Graffiti Project, which involves incorporating designs while cleaning soot off grimy walls. That way one doesn't even have to clean the entire wall and yet still beautify the place. Maybe my father could do the same thing the next time he cleans the moss and dirt from our driveway using our high pressure washer.
Today we celebrate the birthday of our national hero, Jose Rizal (José Protacio Mercado Rizal Alonso y Realonda). It was therefore with great pride as a Filipino to see that this Great Malayan was the featured birthday celebrant over at the Free Dictionary considering that so many other prominent personalities were also born on this day such as James I of England, the great mathematician Blaise Pascal, Wallis Simpson the Duchess of Windsor, Lou Gehrig, Guy Lombardo, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, writer Salman Rushdie ... and ooh, look! the young British actor Hugh Dancy.
I've just realized that when the little girl yesterday asked whether the seminar speaker was my "daddy", she probably meant "husband". I suppose kids at that age aren't likely to have "husband", "wife" or "spouse" yet in their limited vocabulary--although they would understand in a sense that daddy was married to mommy--and would probably substitute the words "daddy" or "mommy" instead. So now, because she was told by the seminar speaker that I was "his mommy", I wonder if she took that to be a "yes" to her original question.
Once again, tonight's lecture about music in the liturgy turned into another sermon for us participants: our speaker complained among other things about how parents were negligent in instructing their children how to behave properly during mass and that some even failed to correct their children's bad behavior during mass. But this time around, I didn't feel as ashamed as I did before. And although the other participants appeared dumbfounded by our speaker's remarks, I found myself totally agreeing with him because my parents did insist that we children behave during mass even when we were little--I was the one who meekly obeyed but my more headstrong and lively sister was a bit more of a problem--and I now would also get irritated by unruly children who are allowed to wander around the church, talk loudly and, horrors! even eat and drink while the mass was going on.
The coordinator for our parish's music seminar series brought along her four-year-old daughter to this evening's session and left her to amuse herself and mingle with the other people there as they waited for the seminar to start. The seminar speaker was busy setting up his laptop and the LCD projector while I was occupied with setting up my keyboard and other paraphernalia. After observing us for a while, the little girl came over to me and to my infinite amusement asked, "Daddy mo ba siya? (Is he your daddy?)", indicating the seminar speaker. Since the seminar speaker is actually younger than I am, I laughed at the thought and called over to him, "Joel, are you my daddy daw?" He too laughed, then thought for a moment before telling the little girl while giving me a wicked look, "No, she's my mommy!"
I've been anxiously following news about the recent floods in the US Midwest mainly because they remind me of my own experiences with another flood: the so-called Great Flood of 1993. I remember that one scary stormy evening when my sister and I had to seek refuge in our downstairs neighbor's apartment when the tornado warnings went off and the winds picked up alarmingly. And then there was the most unforgettable sight, when we woke up the next morning, of the golf course across the street looking virtually like a lake: the creek nearby had jumped its banks during the night and spilled over into the golf course and our residential area. Luckily for us, our apartment building was on much higher ground and was spared from the rising flood waters.
Another beautiful sight for sore eyes--for me at least--was that of my clean office. I spent most of this afternoon dusting, sorting and filing away papers, and rearranging a few things. Although I must have been a strange sight wearing a mask to protect my sensitive nose from all the dust my cleaning sent flying about--some of my colleagues thought I was wary of contracting rabies after yesterday's scare--it was a relief to see my office afterwards finally free of all a year's worth of clutter and piles of old exam papers.
The sun was beating down and the air stifling hot as I walked down to have lunch in one of the eateries outside campus around 1pm. It made me envy the two little maya birds who were enjoying a bath in one of the sidewalk puddles of rainwater leftover from yesterday's rains.
Just late this afternoon one of our administrative staff passed away from, of all things, rabies. This naturally came as a shock for all of us at work. While we knew that he had been confined at the hospital for the past few days, we thought he was out of danger because he was discharged the other day. But he started acting strangely back at home and had to be brought back this morning. That was when he was diagnosed with rabies. What was even more shocking was that he allegedly got bitten by a dog ten years ago but refused to have anti-rabies shots due to his phobia for injections. Sadly, this negligence cost him dearly and he left behind a wife and three children, including a two-year-old.
One of our students is struggling to finish his thesis and ended up having to request to have his residency extended in order to graduate. His explanation for his lapse was that he and his family recently found out that their father has a second family. And because the father's betrayal, the poor student lost all motivation to work on his thesis. What a terrible thing to do to a son.
There's an ongoing tennis match at the Stella Artois Championships in Queen's between somebody from Thailand and a young fellow from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The name of the former is so typically Thai: Kittipong Wachiramanowong. Pity the poor chair umpire who has to pronounce that tongue twister for every game the Thai wins and likewise for every advantage point by the Thai! (And the opening set has just been decided by a tie-break.)
A sports channel on cable is currently showing a series of Wimbledon documentaries highlighting classic tennis rallies and famous doubles teams. As I watched old footage of men's matches from the early eighties, it struck me how fortunate we are that long athletic shorts are the current fashion. Make no mistake about it: Federer would probably still look good in those short shorts. But imagine how ridiculous Nadal would look in them!
Today there was a constant stream of students coming to my office consulting me about possible thesis topics. Consequently, I practically spent all day talking with potential advisees, explaining my ideas as well as brainstorming with them for a good topic. While I'm satisfied with the results of these discussions, my poor throat has come up in the losing end. I have had to drink some ginger tea and suck on lozenges in an effort to sooth my tired throat since I definitely don't want to come down with a sore throat at this time. Otherwise, how am I going to help out teaching song parts to choir members at the ongoing music seminar series at our parish?
I have just been informed that I have been appointed chair of one of our college's working committees. I'm by no means the oldest among the members of the committee. It just so happens that I have been appointed by our director to serve as representative of the institute in the committee all these years while the heads of the other departments have chosen different representatives nearly every year. Peg it down to my so-called experience, in other words. Besides, there are so few of us faculty members in our institute that I suppose our director hasn't had much of a choice. In fact most of us here are doing double duty by serving as members in various committees both within and outside our institute.
I'm having this current craze for traditional sacred choral music--and by that I'm referring not to contemporary Christian music by the likes of Marty Haugen and David Hass but rather to Gregorian chant and works mainly by the Renaissance and Baroque masters like di Lasso and Palestrina. I've found listening to that kind of music very soothing and relaxing. As I mentioned before, I have resorted to bringing CDs of this kind of music (from my own audio CD collection) with me to work. But today I believe I hit a gold mine: a channel on Live 365 broadcasting "sacred choral music centered on the Catholic tradition."
As I watched the news clip of Hillary Clinton announcing that she was ending her bid for the US presidency and endorsing Barack Obama, I couldn't help contrast this with how election candidates here react to their own losses. Instead of stepping down graciously and supporting the other candidate for the sake of unity, they refuse to admit defeat and tend to channel their bitterness toward doing their best to thwart the winner's own efforts to put their plans to work when they do assume office. It's no wonder this country isn't making any progress no matter who wins the elections.
I had a comically entertaining experience while watching live streaming video of the tennis matches last night. As the Federer-Monfils match was coming to a close, the video suddenly froze, puzzling many in the chat room. When it became clear that this particular channel had really stopped broadcasting, many started asking for another link to another live streaming channel. In the meantime I looked up the live channel directory and jumped to another channel broadcasting the same match. There I was highly amused to see the same people in the chat room of the previous channel pop up and announce themselves to the current chat crowd by saying "Hello. We're here from the Spanish broadcast." Then a few minutes later, the broadcast stopped inexplicably as well. Complaints once again abounded on the chat window including "Somebody give me another link!" We all finally ended up in yet a third channel where the quality was rather bad--but of course that was better than nothing and nobody left apparently until the match was over.
I spotted this really hilarious but cool description of the walrus moustache sported by a past champion of Jeopardy: "a moustache that lives in its own time zone".
It's past 12:30pm and although my stomach has already started to grumble for something to digest I can't seem to budge from my seat here in front of my PC. The main reason is I don't feel like eating lunch in any of the fastfood restaurants outside campus and am wondering where else could I eat. But as it is boiling hot outside, it is unlikely that I will go anywhere else and will have to settle for something that will seem least revolting to me at the moment. Sigh. Eeny meeny miny mo ...
There are many swear words in Filipino which I thought all the while were unique to our language (although I am aware that many words in Filipino are derived from the Spanish). I was therefore surprised when I thought I saw Nadal mouth one when his smash shot went long during his match against Federer in the 2006 Wimbledon men's singles final. I finally got confirmation tonight while watching the Federer-Gonzalez match via streaming video here on my laptop: When Gonzalez made a costly error one of the Spanish-speaking people participating on the online chat room and evidently rooting for the Chilean gave vent to his feelings by typing out "putaaaaa".
I was shocked this morning to see that the MTCRB had decided to award an R-13 (Restricted to ages 13 and up) rating for the movie "Sex and the City" instead of a more suitable R-18 (Restricted to ages 18 and up). (In the US, the movie was rated R, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.) Although it is possible that the more objectionable scenes had been edited out here, do the members of the board really think that it is appropriate to expose our thirteen year olds--and without an adult to accompany them--to the overall theme presented by the movie?
While I was chatting with the secretary of our department, our former director came in with--not surprisingly--a big tub of caramel popcorn. This she opened and good-naturely offered some to me and to the secretary. After each of us got more than handful, our former director who has long been trying to reduce weight explained to us that "kaunti lang ang calories nito (this has very little calories)" then disappeared into her office with the rest of the popcorn. I suppose she was referring to the number of calories per serving. But since it is apparent she would be consuming the rest of the popcorn all by herself, her point became virtually moot.
Since I've been charged with providing keyboard accompaniment during the music seminar series I have been attending, I had to figure out the harmony for the songs that were emailed to me last Saturday. It so happens that one of the songs had really strange phrasing in one of its verses and consequently I had to play the piece over and over before I could come up with a chord progression that sounded satisfactory enough. The only trouble now is the refrain of that song now keeps playing over and over in my head!
Tonight's lecture on the role of music in the liturgy and the role of musicians during the mass virtually turned into a homily of sorts. During the long discussion that ensued, the speaker lamented how Catholics in general made little effort in truly understanding the Word of God and took the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass rather lightly. With that I suddenly became painfully conscious of my shortcomings as a Catholic and, despite being a regular church goer, how far I was from being the devout Catholic I thought I was.
Late last night I received through email from our cantor the sheet music of the church songs that we are going to sing during tomorrow's seminar as examples of different time signatures. What's more is that the cantor said in his email that he enjoyed the jamming session we had last week and hoped we could do so more often. That cheered me up because I myself had not done any jamming for several years and miss it terribly. Generally, I'm really enjoying this seminar series even if I am familiar with the basics of music notation and look forward to the rest of the sessions we'll be having in the next few weeks.
Without any live coverage of Roland Garros to watch on tv, I've been bored to death watching live scores online for the past few days. I also discovered a good link to live streaming video of Eurosports France. Although I get a tiny 1-inch video image on my laptop screen and can't understand a thing of the French commentary, it's better than nothing. But just earlier I came across a great video website with all sorts of live streaming video and have settled on a channel showing ESPN. The image is much bigger and is not as choppy. I hope the link works until at least the end of the tournament because I definitely don't want to miss out on any action on court!
Somebody earlier remarked that so-and-so something was "to die for". Although I know that it's simply an exaggeration, it struck me how odd that expression was. I mean I would certainly die for somebody or for a cause. But for some object? I wouldn't want to die for it otherwise I wouldn't be around to enjoy it.
While exploring our area using Google Maps earlier, I switched to the Terrain view. I've already known that the nearby mountain is an extinct--perhaps even just a dormant--volcano. And the Terrain view clearly backed this up. What was even a scarier discovery though was to see the entire Southern and Central Luzon region dotted with mountains topped with what were clearly craters--Mt. Pinatubo among them. Imagine being surrounded by all those extinct volcanoes any of which could come back to life anytime now.
I thought I'd check out Google Maps earlier just to see if our town was finally included among the hi-res satellite image updates made in the past few months. And it was! Finally, finally, finally! I zoomed in right away to the area where our house is. And there it was: rectangular beige roof at the foot of "our" hill. Hee-hee.
Last Tuesday seven other instructors from my department and I attended a seminar series on teaching organized by the university. When I showed up for part two of the series today only three of the other instructors were there. And then only one stayed on until the end of the day. What a disappointment! To think that there were limited slots for attending the seminar and our former director fought to have eight slots alloted to our department. And now these irresponsible instructors have totally wasted them.
Here I am once again watching Roland Garros live scores online and listening to Roland Garros Radio hoping I will be able to imagine what's going on on the court based on the commentators' descriptions. But to my great disappointment, the two fellows spend most of their time on air discussing and sometimes even arguing about faraway tennis issues--like who should or should not be inducted into the International Hall of Fame--and just occasionally comment on the action on court.
Nope, not the rain here but the rain that's wreaking havoc on this year's Roland Garros in Paris. Today I came home before 6pm hoping to catch some tennis "action" (i.e., by watching live scores on my laptop) but was disappointed to find that the start time for the first match had been moved from 11am to 12:30pm because of the rain (again!). Checking back later, I see that play will now start at 1:30pm. Then when I check back again at 7:30pm (local time), the website now says 1:45pm instead. Play did finally commence just before 2pm (Paris local time) but now there's yet been another rain delay!
I didn't get to play my keyboard that much during tonight's seminar on music despite the topic being on pitch and key signatures. But I had some fun jamming afterwards with our cantor after we found out that we both liked the same set of mass songs. (He had not sang those songs ever since he got back from the US a year ago while I had been hoping all these years that someone would be interested in singing those songs again during mass.)
To get a bit of exercise and stretch my legs, I walked up to the third floor of our office building earlier this afternoon. There I paused at the open lobby overlooking central campus. The only people I see are an occasional student walking by with an umbrella over his/her head (there was a slight drizzle) or biking through campus, and a boy in rags--probably from the slum areas outside campus--trying to repair the broken chain of his bicycle in the shelter of the bus stop in front of our building. At the same time, I rued the fact that I didn't have my camera with me to capture how peaceful the campus looked without crowds of students milling around and cars filling the parking lots.
After eating lunch out outside campus and seeing that the weather was pleasant enough for a walk, I decided to take a different route back to my office for a change of scenery. As a result, I got to see what renovation work was being done on the main office building of our college. The walls and roof were being repainted and section of roofing was (finally!) being built over the stairs coming down from the rear entrance.
Less than an hour before the start of the mass (and half an hour before the praying of the rosary commenced), our church choir group was approached by the head of the liturgical ministry of our parish to chant the Sequence before the Alleluia as well as the Adoro te Devote after communion! We--or I should say our cantor who would primarily do the singing--were naturally distressed and upset that we weren't told well in advance so that we could learn and practice adequately. He managed to improvise a melody for the sequence and learn the Adoro Te despite no sheet music being provided but he said afterwards that never again would he acquiesce to such last minute things.
Last year Solar Sports decided against buying the rights to televise live coverage of the US Open. Now after checking their program schedule I have discovered that they're apparently going to do same for Roland Garros this year. Oh, what a bummer! ( There actually is another channel called Balls TV that will be showing the tournament. But Balls is only shown on Sky Cable, the cable tv provider exclusive to Manila.) It will be back to watching live scores online for me now I suppose.
I had to dig through my stuff here to look for my pitch pipe which I thought would be useful during the weekly music seminars I'm currently attending. While I didn't find what I was looking for--sigh, I wonder where it is!--I rediscovered a few things: old registration forms with signatures of my professors then who are now my colleagues at work; old punch cards from my first programming classes still stacked in their original order; and my old diaries which include a lengthy and detailed account of those three days more than twenty years ago when I competed at a national piano competition.
I'm right-handed but I've long realized that I do some things with my left hand. I hold my glass or cup with my left hand while eating; I prefer to pour water from a bottle or pitcher using my left hand; and I type text messages on my cellphone using the thumb of my left hand. Then I carry my shoulder bag over my left shoulder. I also know that my dominant eye is my left eye and that I hold the phone receiver to my left ear. Then while driving home today, I discovered that I actually steer the car using my left hand and just use my right hand to hold the steering wheel steady.
I am disappointed--though not entirely surprised--about the way authorities have handled investigations into the recent brutal murder of ten people during a bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna: As part of their operations to nab those responsible for the crime, they have gone out and killed four suspects during a shootout. But as news articles say, the police have yet to determine whether the suspects were actually involved in the murders!
And sad to say, that is very typical of criminal investigations here. As inexcusable as the original crime was, doesn't killing alleged suspects also bring down the police to the level of the murderers? Aren't police trained to give the alleged or suspected criminals a chance to surrender peacefully before resorting to deadly force even in extremely dangerous situations (unless of course there is an immediate threat to life)? Isn't it also downright stupid to kill the suspects when we could have obtained more crucial information about the actual perpetrators had they been taken alive? (I could rant on but my "30 seconds" have long been up.)
Two beautiful things today (a la Three Beautiful Things):
My mother recently bought half a gallon ice cream from the local dairy for us to try--again, that is, since we actually have been buying some on and off in the past several years. First she bought the strawberry flavored one and then, because that turned out to be good (in fact, much richer than the ice cream that commercially available in the supermarkets), chocolate. But as I was scooping some for dessert after dinner, I noticed a major boo-boo on the label: it read "Net weight: 1/2 gallon."
I brought along my CDs of Gregorian Chant and other sacred music hoping to stay relaxed while I work by listening to some peaceful music. (I'm expecting things to start getting hectic soon here at work now that the summer term is just about over and the regular semester starts in three weeks!) But I'm afraid my plan kind of backfired: I'm now finding myself yawning and practically dozing off here while working at my PC.
Practically every evening after supper my father watches his favorite tv shows on the Discovery and National Geographic channels while sitting in one of our comfortable rocking chairs in the family room. The tv's volume is usually turned up such that I can hear it blaring just outside my bedroom. (Sometimes I don't even have to turn up the volume on my tv if I happen to be watching the same show here in my room). And just a few moments ago, I heard the tv remote control clatter to the floor: My father must have dozed off again while watching!
Today my meals got switched: I brought food (rice, chicken adobo and tortang talong) from home to eat for lunch mainly to avoid having to walk in the pouring rain (it pours nearly everyday now) to the fastfood restaurants outside campus. (It also meant though that I would miss getting some exercise from that daily walk.) Then when I got home this evening, I discovered that my mother had bought me a Whopper (yum yum yum!) from the Burger King branch in the next town to eat for dinner.
Just two things I took note of when I drove down to work this morning:
At this evening's music seminar for our parish's choir members, I met someone who had similar dreams of pursuing music as a career but never had the means or opportunity to do so. While he went on to be a medical doctor, he continued to join choirs in order to fulfill a need to keep music in his life. I on the other hand was likewise lucky enough to be asked to be piano accompanist to a number of choirs and, as I realized lately, took out my frustrations by maintaining a growing collection of CDs (mostly classical, of course), purchasing and downloading piano sheet music to learn on my own, attending concerts and piano masterclasses whenever I could afford to (this was mainly when I was in Singapore) and getting myself my precious Yamaha P-80.
This afternoon I could hear the annoying buzz of a chainsaw from somewhere near our office building. This went on for several minutes before it thankfully stopped. Suddenly there was a frightening crash that shook the building and rattled the grill on my windows. On looking outside my window to find what caused the crash, I saw that some grounds men had cut down one of the many palm trees lining the road across from our building. The tree was one of those that had died recently and was in danger of toppling over and hurting someone in the process.
Of course I was disappointed with the outcome of the finals match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the ATP Masters Series tournament in Hamburg. But I couldn't help but laugh at the photo of both players looking like Sad Sacks while posing with their trophies. If you didn't know what the winner's trophy looks like you probably wouldn't be able to tell who won the title!
Photo credit: AP Photo/Joerg Sarbach
Remember when I thought I had lost some weight or inches last month because my clothes felt more loose? The other day I tried on the red dress that I bought in Singapore years ago when I was much fitter and slimmer, and it fitted! Then today I confirmed that I had lost weight, six pounds to be exact because I'm down to 110lbs. I haven't been making any conscious effort to lose weight so it's a bit of a mystery why that happened. But there's a possible explanation: I've been aware that I haven't been as hungry as usual between meals lately and hence have not been eating snacks in the morning and afternoon at work. Due to less stress perhaps?
Right now I'm watching a terrific battle between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal for a place in the finals of the Hamburg Masters Series and, more importantly, for the number two spot in the ATP rankings. The two young gladiators are really slugging it out there on the clay court, producing long exciting rallies and jaw dropping winners. With all the fist pumping and raw emotion, all the drama... it's simply great stuff! I have a feeling though that Djokovic will eventually burn himself out. He simply doesn't have the stamina--not yet at least--to match Nadal's intense physical clay court game. But then again Djokovic can be quite tenacious.
I finally got to go to the dentist today for prophylaxis. Since it's been a few years since I've had one, I was quite nervous about this visit, being afraid that my dentist would discover new cavities. But it didn't turn out as bad as I thought. (And I sat in that dreaded chair just under three quarters of a hour.) Although my gums are now a little sore form all the cleaning, I'm relieved that my teeth were given a clean bill of health. Phew! And my dentist was also nice enough to apply flouride on my teeth for extra protection.
For possibly the first time ever in my life, I got caught out in the rain without an umbrella. When I went out to lunch earlier, I didn't bring along my umbrella after seeing that it was sunny and hot out. But while I was eating at one of the fastfood restaurants, I was dismayed to see that it was pouring outside. Luckily the rain had stopped by the time I was done eating. So I set out to walk back to my office. But then it began to rain harder halfway there and I had no choice to wait it out at another building. There I waited with other people stranded by the rain before when the weather cleared just enough for me to walk back to my office about twenty minutes later.
I think I'll have to start walking or biking to work sooner or later. When I had the gas tank of my car filled earlier before my trip to Manila I was shocked to see that unleaded gasoline now costs more than Php50 per liter. Consequently I had to pay more than Php1555 for just half a tankful of gas! (The indicator of my car's fuel gauge was on the first tick below the halfway mark.)
I'm afraid that given the limited choices near the campus I've finally gotten tired of eating nearly the same food for lunch everyday. It took some time for me to decide what to eat for lunch earlier before I reluctantly settled on roast chicken from the little kiosk near the mall. Sometimes I wish could explore other eating places outside campus. But then I don't have much time during the lunch hour to walk to other places farther out. Driving is also out of the question since gasoline prices have skyrocketed. Besides, after all the stress we get from work, who would be crazy enough to drive through the chaos of noontime rush hour just to have lunch?
After having eaten lunch out I was in a slight stupor--thanks to the cooler temperatures brought on by the downpour earlier--as I approached the front entrance of our office building. Fortunately, I woke up just in time. If I had not, I would have made a fool of myself by stepping into the large pool of rainwater (about two inches deep) that had accumulated around the steps leading up to our office building. (The walk slopes down toward the steps from the street.) I then turned around and made my way to the side entrance instead.
Earlier this evening I attended a music workshop, the third in a series of eight workshops intended to teach members of church choirs to read music. Since I can read music fairly well I didn't really need to attend but the resource person eventually realized that he needed someone to play the keyboard during vocalization exercises. So I showed up with my keyboard tonight. Unfortunately, just as the opening prayers were being said, the lights went out! In order to kill time while waiting for power to be restored, we had breathing exercises and vocalized (without the keyboard, of course). But because the power wasn't back yet an hour later, the resource person announced that he would hold the workshop proper next week instead, and then he proceeded to lead the closing prayers. Just as he pronounced "Amen" the lights turned on!
I just want to record that today, Mother's Day, was spent with most of my relatives on my mother's side--including my 95-year-old grandmother and one whom I had never met before: the youngest of all my cousins who is 24 years younger than I am. We had difficulty finding a place to eat because all the restaurants were full of families similarly having lunch out to celebrate Mother's Day and because there were so many of us (twenty in all)!
Federer is losing his quarterfinals match against Stepanek in Rome, 6-7 2-4. Yes, of course, I'm disappointed but I can't help but be amused by how the crowd watching is so obviously in favor of Federer. They cheer when he hits a winner and they roar when Stepanek makes an error. And just now the crowd is once again abuzz with excitement because Federer has just broken back for 3-4 in the second set.
There was a light rain with the sun setting behind me and slightly to my left as I drove home. When I looked east toward the side road I was eventually turning into I was thrilled to catch sight of a brilliant band of colors in the sky ahead of me. Then, after quickly taking my eyes off the road a few times to follow its arc, I saw that the rainbow was complete! I even got a better view when I was able to slow down slightly after turning into the less busy road that lead home. So when I got home about five minutes later, I rushed inside the house to grab my camera. But by the time I got back outside, the sun had sunk a little lower into the horizon causing the rainbow to become too faint to be satisfactorily captured on film. Sigh.
Over at Mental Floss blog is a challenge to name an unwritten rule that one generally experiences in life. I've just remembered one after ordering lunch at Chow King: When you receive your order at a fastfood restaurant it rarely looks the way it is depicted on the menu display. Take for instance the beef chao fan I ordered today with fried dumplings as topping; it just never has as much vegetables as the picture of that item on the display shows.
This morning while trying to work here at my office PC, a constant thumping could be heard from the concrete ceiling above. At first I thought I could ignore it and get on with my work but it just got more annoying especially since I was listening to Chopin piano sonatas playing on my PC's CD drive. So I went up to the second floor office to see if I could stop the noise. All the offices there had their doors closed except for one where a young fellow, possibly a student or a young instructor, was working at a PC with headphones on. And he was stomping on the floor with his right foot in time with whatever music he was listening to! The poor fellow looked thoroughly embarrassed and apologized profusely when I asked him as nicely as possible to stop the stomping.
I am saddened to hear that a distant relative has gone to court to contest the will and testament of an aunt who bequeathed considerable wealth to her siblings but left her virtually nothing--or so it appears. Having seen this kind of thing played out too many times in the past, I have nothing more to say on this other than that I'm relieved and thankful that this relative is a very distant relative.
I'm back home from today's brief shopping trip--done to make the most out of the van we hired--with a new automatic voltage regulator (can't hurt to have one more in the house), a keyring, a can of make-it-yourself air freshener, a one-hole puncher, four ID cases, one of those handy new double-sided tape dispensers, and a 1000 piece puzzle (which proves how bored I am this summer). And what was on my shopping list? Nothing. Not one item. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Truly a dangerous way to shop! Tsk tsk.
During my trip today to Manila--my first in several months, by the way--I was reminded once again why I'm lucky not to be living in that city: instead of a clear blue sky all I see is the dull gray smog enveloping the city. Plus the haze is so thick that skyscrapers less than a mile away can barely be seen. Ugh! I can't imagine what it's like living in one of those condominiums and not being able to open the windows to let in fresh air.
After sitting in as a casual observer at a music workshop last night, I decided to dig up some music books that I had to do a bit of reviewing on music notation and theory. One of the books I've had since the 1980s was a fragile copy of The Principles of Expression in Pianoforte Playing by Adolph Christiani which originally belonged to a grand aunt. According to my grandmother's inscription on the endpapers it was given to her sister in the 1920s by someone who I presume was her piano teacher. I opened it for the first time in more than a decade and was astonished to find that the copyright was dated 1885. That in all likelihood makes it the oldest book we have here at home!
Today was a rainy day and so it was no surprise when I arrived home earlier to see the large stray tom cat claiming the front door mat once again for himself . He looked pretty bad yesterday when I saw him under the car with his face all scratched up apparently from a fight with another neighborhood cat. But today he looked much better and was his usual sleepy self, meowing lazily and refusing to open his eyes when I talked to him before making my way into the house.
I often get funny looks from other people whenever I go out walking to lunch under the hot summer sun--sometimes it's 35C out there nowadays--without an umbrella over my head. Other staff I meet along the way sometimes even ask, "Nagpapaitim ka ba?" (Are you trying to get a tan?) On the contrary, I'm not crazy about getting a tan. My reason is actually quite simple: My job entails working indoors at my desk or at my computer practically all day. So why shouldn't I want to get exposed to good healthy sunlight even if it's for just ten minutes everyday?
As my small contribution toward saving the environment, I've been bringing along a small cloth bag for my take-out lunches and requesting people taking my order at the fast food restaurants not to put my food in plastic bags. Despite doing this for the past three months, I continued to get puzzled reactions, with many even insisting on using plastic bags saying that the food or drink might spill and spoil my cute little bag. But today, the girl behind the counter at McDonald's finally recognized the little bag I had just pulled out from my knapsack and asked, "Hindi na po ilalagay sa plastic bag?" (Not to be placed in plastic bags?) When I replied, "Yes," she handed me my cheeseburger, fries and pineapple juice without another word.
A friend, who is married with two daughters, and I discovered that we were both approached by one of our students to fill up a survey which was part of an assignment for another class and attempted to find out people's secrets for looking young. Naturally we were both flattered but at the same time laughingly admitted that we weren't particular about using age-defying products to look young. In other words, we didn't have any secret formula. After further reflection however we concluded that the secret to looking young was perhaps not being obsessed about it.
Having not seen the mother bird show up all day today I suppose it's official: The egg in the nest outside the bedroom window here has been abandoned. The egg is still there; I can still see it at the bottom of the nest. Poor thing. How ironic that the mother bird should abandon it starting on Labor Day.
I'm a little worried about the nest that is just outside the bedroom window here. There was nobody sitting on the nest practically all day yesterday although my mother mentioned that late in the afternoon she saw the mother bird come and sit. But that was only for a few minutes. The nest remained empty today except for at least some ten minutes this morning when I saw the mother bird show up. She couldn't seem to settle down though and kept hopping in and out of the nest before eventually flying away.
Watching a few videos of pianist Cecile Licad on YouTube brings back memories of a fun incident during her solo piano recital at the 2002 Singapore Piano Festival which I attended: The audience was sitting during the intermission discussing the merits of first part of the recital when a piano tuner came onto the stage to tune the piano which had taken quite a beating--for Licad had just performed a demanding set of piano pieces by Liszt. A few murmurs and chuckles went through the crowd as the man went about his work. Then when he was done, the grateful audience applauded and gave him a cheer for his "performance". In response he grinned, waved and gave a bow before walking offstage.
A student applying for readmission came to me this afternoon to obtain my recommendation. His letter to the dean explained that his grandfather was the main breadwinner of their family because his father was "missing in action". But since his grandfather passed away recently , the student had to take on a job (which was mainly why he often missed classes) to help his mother who was now struggling to make ends meet and put him and his two younger siblings through college and another much younger sibling through grade school. I then inquired if his father was a member of the military. To my surprise he said that that wasn't the case. When he added with a meaningful look that his father simply "went missing in action" I realized what he meant.
It's Labor Day here and what better way to close the day than to see the results of more than 16 years of labor of one Theo Jansen, Dutch artist and engineer. A modern day Leonardo da Vinci, he is known for having created a number of amazing "kinetic sculptures" meant to "live their own lives" on beaches, their movement relying on nothing but wind and water. These lifelike strandbeests remind me so much of people's models over at Sodaplay but in three dimensions.
What did I do today? Aside from my usual chores here at home, I got to vacuum unsightly spiderwebs off the ceiling and corners of both my bedroom and bathroom. A hot muggy summer is not exactly a good time to do heavy house work but then when else would one have the time to clean? I also helped my mother create tables for her research report in MS Word. It was a challenge simplifying what I do so automatically so that my mother could easily follow my instructions. In other words, MS Word for Mummies. Hehe.
Today I finally had time to go to the hairdresser to have my hair trimmed. (Actually I escaped during office hours to avoid the crowd at the end of the day. Shh!) It was simply getting too long for comfort considering the hot summer we're currently having. (Of course I can always put it up but that was getting to be too much of a bother as well.) Now that it's cut to just above my shoulders I can quickly tie it in a ponytail to keep it out of the way or just leave it down. Either way I'd still feel cool and comfortable.
I spent most of today setting up a site on our university's Moodle course management system for the course that I am handling this summer. Although it was the first time I had worked with a CMS, I immediately got hooked exploring and experimenting with its many features and tools. Now I'm seriously considering using it for my courses in the future.
When I arrived at work earlier today I saw one of the priests in our parish standing in the parking lot . I went over, greeted him good morning and inquired if he was waiting for somebody. He replied that he was waiting for a jeepney ride to some part of town but it was taking a while for the jeepney (parked there in the parking lot) to leave because the driver was still waiting for more passengers to come. After exchanging a few more words with him I took my leave and went to my office. Later I realized that I should have offered him a lift. I suppose I was too anxious about getting to work. Sigh.
Now this is one cool video: a real-time video of a shuttle launch as captured by a camera atop the shuttle. It's scary how you can go all the way up there in the upper atmosphere in just two minutes. But at the same time one can't help but stare in amazement at how the landscape quickly shrinks as the shuttle pulls away, clouds eventually dotting the view. And then there's the shadow of the exhaust trail. Whoa!
The television set at the McDonald's restaurant today was tuned in to a popular noontime game and variety show. The scene shown on the screen was very typical of noontime shows here: the host quizzing contestants while in the background were several skimpily clad ladies dancing as if they were in a bar. What I can't understand is why all these game shows are widely advertised as "para sa buong pamilya" (for the whole family) when you have ladies so obviously dressed and behaving inappropriately. Would any conscientious parent invite ladies dressed like that to dance at their child's birthday party?
During my walks outside campus, I would always see this old white dog with patches of grey fur snoozing away on the floor of one of the tiny stalls that line the main road just outside campus. Today for a change I saw him awake and slowly walking along the sidewalk. Then I notice that he has cataracts in his eyes. Poor thing. He paused outside another store and sat down. Perhaps he'll be settling down soon once again to take another nap.
On my way to pick up some documents from an office outside campus earlier, I found myself having to step aside several times to dodge water dripping (we had a terrific downpour during the lunch hour) from eaves extending halfway over the sidewalk and avoid stepping on several "booby traps" on the sidewalk left behind by stray doggie-woggies.
There was a poster at KFC advertising the latest addition to their menu called Spiral Salad so I decided to order one for lunch. It turned out to be nothing but a rehash of their Caesar chicken salad with about half a cup of flavored pasta (either spiralini or gemelli) added--which I suppose is sufficient to justify the additional Php10 charge. Nothing great but good enough for a change.
That's either a crown (courtesy of the Rolex logo in the background) or David Nalbandian's hair standing on end--perhaps at the sight of who's standing at the other side of the net! (It happens to be Roger Federer, a Goliath in the world of tennis. Haha.)
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Perhaps in the future neither will be needed because there's a $1M prize for the first to grow chicken meat in vitro in the lab. The idea sounds cool but at the same time feels weird to me. I can't seem to explain why. Meat that was never an animal in the first place? Hmm. I suppose that will mean goodbye to dark meat. Then maybe eventually chickens will no longer have to be domesticated--if we can grow meat in the lab, why not chicken eggs as well?--and will be left to fend for themselves in the wild.
As Rafael Nadal hit a running forehand to clinch a thrilling match against David Ferrer, I heard a double clap come from the direction of the masters bedroom. There was no mistaking that that was the sound of my mother exulting over this come-from-behind victory (6-1 7-5) of her favorite tennis player--just as I rejoiced earlier (with a fist pump) over Federer's triumph (5-7 6-2 6-2) over long-time nemesis David Nalbandian.
My tummy started grumbling for some nourishment late this afternoon so I went out to buy some snacks to munch on. To my dismay, the food stall nearby didn't have much to offer while the other at the opposite end of the building was already closing for the day. I had no choice but return to work with my empty stomach. But just as I was about to enter the hallway leading to my office I was approached by an ambulant vendor who was trying to get rid of the last of some nilupak that he had in his bilao. In the end I made both my stomach and the vendor happy.
This morning our department held a testimonial ceremony for our graduating students. Among these were six --which, by the way, included identical twin sisters--who were graduating magna cum laude--the most ever in a single batch in the history of our department--and three were graduating cum laude. Needless to say our students were evidently proud of their achievement while we instructors were likewise delighted with this unusually talented batch of graduating students.
I've always avoided using my flash drive on computers other than mine at the office or the two laptops that we have here at home. But when I presented our department's curricular proposals last Tuesday I had to plug my flash drive into somebody else's laptop at the meeting in order to show the presentation slides I had prepared. Aware that other computers in campus are notorious for harboring undetected viruses, I plugged my flash drive into this laptop which has an updated anti-virus software installed. And voila, a worm!--which luckily the anti-virus software was able to remove. While I can finally breath a sigh of relief, I have resolved that next time I have to share or use my files elsewhere I'll just email them to whoever is in-charge.
I laughed when I read story #2035 over at One Sentence: I walked into the bathroom, saw the large spider in the tub, and decided a shower could wait. That sure sounds like me. Sometimes though--depending on how large the spider is, of course--I just grit my teeth, step into the shower stall and hope the spider is more afraid of me than I am of it. One can't afford to miss a shower in this country's hot muggy weather!
About a quarter of an hour after twelve noon I walked to KFC to buy lunch expecting as always to stand in line for at least ten minutes before my turn came to order. It was therefore a shock to find that there were no queues at all! Such a phenomenon would usually occur well before or after lunchtime. What it was about today, a typical class day during the summer term, that caused those queues to disappear I have yet to figure out. Hmmm.
My family came to know a young priest who was here at our parish for a few years and although he was eventually assigned to a parish in another country, we kept in touch via email. He recently broke the news that his sister, who happens to be a religious herself, passed away in their native country. I sent him my family's sympathies just earlier tonight but he immediately responded by sending a series of emails with photos of his sister's funeral and body lying in the coffin! Now, I'm not too comfortable seeing dead bodies. It is of course all right in the case of relatives or friends but if they are total strangers that's a completely different matter. So this was extremely unpleasant for me to say the least. (I viewed the first few emails but simply filed away the rest without opening them.) Besides, is it proper to send pictures of dead people?
Thanks to the stress of working on our department's curricular proposals, I must have lost some pounds or at least a few inches off my waist and hips: I can slip on my pants more easily nowadays! I have to yet to confirm that fact though using a tape measure and by standing on a weighing scale. And seeing that I've written about my Flickr photos getting Explored and one of my blogs getting Blogged, I believe I better measure my head circumference as well to see whether that has increased by an inch or so!
After finally getting rid of our curricular proposals this morning, I treated myself to a Big Mac for lunch only to remember that we were served hamburger sandwiches during the meeting as a late morning snack. Anyhow, it was a welcome change after having chicken for lunch practically everyday. But I felt I had eaten enough for the day so that when our admin staff had some sotanghon, spaghetti and pan de sal brought to the office late this afternoon to celebrate his daughter's graduation from college I skipped eating the usual merienda and just brought home sotanghon to eat for my dinner.
Among the list of names of students graduating this semester is one with five first names--a bizarre blend of Spanish and Greek names--constituting a total of 33 letters. The people engraving names on the diplomas will sure have a h--- of a time trying to fit all that on the certificate! I also wonder what the poor fellow's signature looks like.
Na, I am not referring to my age (I am getting there though) but rather to the curricular proposals I had been in-charge of for the past few months. I have just seen them through the final processing stages this morning during a major meeting which virtually assured that they would be approved at the highest level of the administration. It was one of the many things I had long been waiting to get rid of, so to speak, before I could more or less settle down and begin to enjoy the less hectic summer term. Of course, I have just caught sight of a few more hills looming in the distance but I have decided not to worry about scaling those for the time being.
I'm back from shopping and here's what I have in my shopping bags. First from the office supply store: an assortment of plastic envelopes, two plastic document holders, a small mesh envelope and a few ID cases. From the hardware store: a pack of AAA batteries (they didn't have any rechargeable ones for my recharger), two packs of surgery/dust masks and a pair of magnetic photo pockets (70% off!). There's also my Swatch watch with its new battery. And finally a rare find in the so-called "classical" sections in local CD stores: a 2-CD set of Prokofiev's five piano concertos performed by one of my favorite pianists Vladimir Ashkenazy (I was tempted to buy the soundtrack of Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd). So much for my short shopping list.
I'm going shopping with my parents today and have on my shopping list just three items: rechargeable AAA batteries (for this confounded optical mouse which has drained three pairs of AAA batteries in two months), a battery replacement for my Swatch watch and a few new ID cases (to replace my current one which has cracked and gotten torn). If I had shown this short list to my sister, we would look at each other knowingly and laugh. How many times have we drawn up a short grocery list and ended buying much more after being lured by temporarily reduced prices of "necessary" items!
I was channel surfing earlier and came across this reality makeover show called How Do I Look? on the LifeStyle channel. In this particular episode a high-school girl about to enter college was being persuaded by her mother and sister to get rid her frumpy look (she was wearing clothes handed down to her by her grandmother). While the resulting makeover did improve her looks, I personally felt that both the mother and the sister--and perhaps even the host of the show to some degree--each needed a makeover themselves. (Since I look to the elegant simplicity of Audrey Hepburn's style as an ideal my standards are rather high.)
I have just finished watching a documentary on Animal Planet about a hippo that was rescued adopted by a retired game warden and his wife as a pet. I was so amused and touched by the cute endearing story especially after seeing how the hippo grew to be a member of the family: playing with the family dogs, sleeping out in the veranda on a mattress covered with a blanket, eating coffee, doggie treats and sweet potatoes, getting aromatherapy from the warden's wife and all sorts of luxuries and privileges any beloved pet would have.
A colleague recently complained that some of his thesis advisees who were due for graduation last semester had gone as far as seeing him at his house to consult with him. I simply said, "Really?" But to myself I thought, well, if he had reported to work at the office everyday his students wouldn't have to look for him at home!
While talking to one of our instructors at his office earlier this afternoon, I noticed on the shelf near his desk a large oval Tupperware container filled with all sorts of individually packed commercial cookies and biscuits. Since this particularly healthy instructor is well known in our department for his fondness for food and cooking, I began to tease him saying, "Oh ho! I see you have a stash of goodies here in your office!" Just then another instructor entered the room, picked out one of the packages of cookies, handed some cash to the instructor I was talking to and walked out. It turns out that the instructor was selling the cookies to augment his meager income as an instructor. Not a bad idea.
I'm watching CNN's live coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the White House. The band there is to play the national anthems of both the United States and of the Holy See. I didn't even know that the Vatican had a national anthem! I was half expecting something like Pange Lingua or the Te Deum.
P.S. After a bit of searching online, I found some info about the Pontifical Anthem.
We're all excited here at home with the discovery of a single egg in the nest outside the bedroom window here. For a few days we thought that the nest had been abandoned. But yesterday afternoon, I saw the bird which had been building the nest over the last weekend fly over and settle down in the nest. Then this morning, I climbed onto the bed to get a better view into the nest and there it was: one egg, about an inch long, pink with brown speckles!
I gave a removal exam this morning to a handful of students who enrolled in my class this past semester but received a conditional failing grade. I felt really sad though after grading their papers because every one of them failed! I was really wishing they would pass and it cut me to the quick to see them just meekly walk away after I broke the bad news to them later this afternoon. Just when they were so eagerly awaiting the results! Contrary to what most students and other people think we instructors generally don't delight in failing our students.
We actually had not one but two downpours today. There was one just before lunchtime which didn't help improve conditions because it became hot and muggy instead afterwards, thanks to the hot noon sun beating down on the pavement. Luckily we had one more downpour later in the afternoon which did cool things down a bit. So now there's a refreshingly cool breeze blowing through the bedroom windows.
We received more sad news today: the father of a family friend passed away this afternoon. My father was supposed to buy a mass card after serving at this afternoon's mass but with all the deaths we've had in the past week or so the parish office has run out of mass cards!
One of the recent Blogs of Note is this blog written by two friends on opposite sides of the border at the Gaza Strip. The courageous and thought-provoking blog provides a window to the uncertainty of life in that war-torn region of the world and makes me all the more grateful for what we here in our country are blessed with. My heart goes out to these two friends and the people there who seek nothing but an end to the war and peace in their land.
Today I can finally breath a sigh of relief. I have graded exams, submitted all my grades, read and reviewed my advisees' papers and have given them the clear to graduate this semester. And, at least for the time being, I'm also done with paperwork and many other things related to my administrative position. My mind is freer and I can now relax a bit and recharge for the next onslaught of duties and activities.
When I went out to eat lunch today, I discovered that McDonald's finally added something to their menu: Cheeseburger Deluxe. It's their basic cheeseburger topped with a lettuce and mayonnaise instead of the usual catsup, pickle and onion. Though slightly more expensive than the regular cheeseburger it was at least something different. I still wish they had retained their McRice burgers though.
This morning on my drive to work I noticed on the road ahead a clearly delineated shaded area although there are no trees or buildings along the road. That's when I realized that the shadow was cast by a cloud. I drove on toward it hoping to get away from the hot sun. However as soon as I reached the shaded portion, it seemed like the shadow dissolved and I couldn't tell whether I was in the shadow or not. Then farther down the road I spotted the end of the shadow and some seconds later I was back out in the sunshine.
This morning I was approached by a student who wanted to know the final grade of her younger brother who was enrolled in one of my classes this semester. She explained that she had come to campus to find out what her grades were as well as those of her brother but that her brother could not make the trip himself because their family could only afford to pay for the bus fare of one person. On hearing this, I immediately felt sorry that she had to bring home with her the sad news that her brother would in all likelihood be receiving a failing grade.
It's another Monday and yet another holiday, Araw ng Kagitingan being this coming Wednesday, 09 April. As in most cases during a busy semester, it isn't much of a holiday for me since I still have work to do. The only difference is I don't have to report to work at the office.
It took my father and I longer than we thought to dig a grave for our poor pet cat. The spot we picked was such that we had to go through a layer of tough fibrous roots from the nearby palm. Then we hit a layer of stones--apparently gravel leftover from the construction of our house--which was what mainly slowed us down. Finally we came upon a layer of dark compact but softer earth. Despite the grim purpose of our task I just thought it was interesting to see the composition of the ground in that area of our lot.
We received sad news from the vet this morning: our pet black cat died during the night while confined at the clinic. Our cat showed signs of some kind of internal infection which was apparently in an advanced state since she was already passing urine mixed with blood and pus. My father and I went to pick up the body this afternoon and buried her in the general area near the lower gate of our lot that has become a burial ground of sorts for our pets.
This week our community has been saddened by the death of five of its members including the 92-year-old mother of a professor, to whom my father has been taking communion every Sunday for the past few years. She passed away early Tuesday morning soon after being administered the last sacraments. A renowned retired professor from another college at our university also passed away around the same time. Then just this morning we received news that another well-respected professor passed away after a short bout of pneumonia. He, like my father, had been serving as a Eucharistic lay minister at our parish. Despite his advanced age--he was 80 years old I think--he remained very active until sometime the middle of last year when he suddenly got confined to bed after overexerting himself one day and was subsequently diagnosed to have bone cancer.
The bird that sings tunes is back in our garden. I have no idea what kind of bird it is as I have never been successful in spotting it among our trees here. But I have heard it sing short tuneful songs which seem to change every year. Some years ago, I remember distinctly that it kept singing a motif of descending notes that went C Bb A G F. I was fascinated because it wasn't the usual twittering of most birds. Just earlier this morning I heard it sing E A F#.
When I arrived home from attending the afternoon mass earlier this evening, I noted that our sick black cat was nowhere to be seen. (Our other cat was on top of the cage in the laundry as usual.) She was not waiting in the driveway as usual nor was she in the back yard. I began to get worried and looked all over for her but had to give up after a futile search. Only when my parents got home much later after attending Holy Hour at our church did I learn that my father had brought our cat this afternoon to the vet's for a check up and that the vet had advised that she be confined at the clinic overnight for observation. What a relief! I had thought she had gone to hide herself in some obscure corner as many sick animals tend to do.
I have long been curious about the traditional Latin mass and my interest has been further peaked after getting the chance to provide accompaniment to Latin songs during mass in the past Holy Week. Thus when my parents mentioned some months ago that the First Friday masses at our parishes were now in Latin, I decided to try attend one just for the sake of experiencing a mass in Latin. (I'd probably lose track of the mass with all the unfamiliar words but who cares?) Unfortunately with my busy schedule at work I haven't been able to do so. That is, until today when I managed to get off work early to attend the 5:30pm mass with my parents. But to my disappointment the mass was said in English instead because a priest other than our parish priest presided. Sigh.
Apparently a lot of websites produced their own joke this year to commemorate April 01. My favorite has to be the one at NPR where some writer reviewed a brand new composition called "B-flat" by a fictional sub-minimalist composer named Simon Fluebel. I just love how the hilariously elaborate praise highlights the ridiculous simplicity of the one-note composition.
The book (My Sister Therese by Celine Martin) that I ordered last year from Catholic book center at the local mall has finally arrived. (Sadly the book center has closed down since.) To my embarrassment it was personally delivered once again to my office here by the Carmelite seminarian who attended to the book center. Although it has been four months since he said I would receive it, I understood that he had been away at the seminary since December and only just got out for vacation. To think that he had to come all the way from his hometown to bring it himself!
