Numb

The match was humiliating and frustrating. I could not find a decent stream from the start of the match but it didn't leave my senses assuming from the tweets and comments in my timelines. It was disappointing that from the 25 matches we've won for this season, all of the team's confidence suddenly went out just like that. Hana said we have a Barca Complex--that El Clasico, despite our insistence, is not just another game every season. It's a big one. Real Madrid's pride is partially built on our reputation of outsmarting Barcelona based from the statistics of CL and La Liga trophies alone. But these are all in the past and we've yet to accomplish a final product for all the hardship and discipline we have. I hate that pundits are judging our team and our players by their individual mistakes. Xabi and Sergio's scripted red cards, Sergio's outburst. It's not something my ethics would condone but I know that sometimes it's inevitable and sometimes, you can't win without doing a backflip of a strategy. Wars were never won with a peaceful battle, after all. I could mostly understand the frustration from Sergio's behaviour, who wouldn't react in a similar fashion when you're cornered and unable to fight back.

A coward's way but I'm partially glad that I could not properly watch El Clasico. My emotions run high for ever Real Madrid game and I don't think I would be this calm if I were able to finish the match. It's a boon the team's next game is still far off. It would be a good move to let the prayers cool off for a day then re-group again. I'm sure Mourinho's got enough strategy to get the boys up and running again. He knows how important  El Clasico is, after all.

Why can't I find my Puyol-Raul embrace? Sigh.

Pointless update

Seeing as I had failed to participate in a reunion-like party last year with my college mates, this year sang a different tune. Beth, Zena and I went along after a gruelling wait at Megamall for Chiko, Margz and Yen's shopping spree. It grated on my patience that the meet-up time was one hour fucking late. The videoke bar at Home Depot had good rooms but quite trashy food and song listing. Red Box still rules the videoke scene around the metro. Actually, it isn't much of a reunion but more of a meet up of a big gang with only 12 of us there. I hogged the mic like crazy resulting to an abused larynx and tired body. It was worth it though. Worth seeing folks I haven't seen since graduation which was three years ago and knowing the latest from them. Cors' flying back to Dubai by Wednesday; I'm going to miss her like crazy but our daily chats I doubt will fade despite the distance. Loved the Papelmeroti pocket planner.

Anyway, school's starting to build its own stress factor with my reporting scheduled practically weekly for my two subjects. Nothing too hard though of course, the lessons are building up. Clinte's not particularly a good subject at the moment. I still got no client to interview and I've no idea whom I can invite.

Grasping, gasping

It's just about three months before 2010 ends but I still end up buying another mini planner for the year. Those pocket-sized planners for Papemelrotti have served their purpose since my college days. I had failed to look for one a few months back so I got stuck with the Book of Days--another planner only with with the dates and not days. It's quite taxing to place my activities without having a single view of each month and since I'm now mixing work with school, I opted to buy another one. 2011 Moleskin planners are out; quite interested in them but from the compact, quite thick detail of it I'm not even sure I should spare bucks for that. Last time I bought a page-per-day planner I had used just one page and now collecting an inch of dust in my cabinet.

A last minute agreement with Mannel and Hannah had us meeting up at the mall this early evening for Mannel's birthday dinner treat and high school news. Had a great time chatting up with them and our deranged batchmates. Seriously, practically everyone from my HS batch are either with child or went into a late identity crisis. Napoli Pizzeria is still as disappointing as ever; I'm quite guilty of not deflecting Mannel's recommendation because my hunger pangs would agree to anything edible. As for Olay's wedding, it came such a big surprise to see my name high up on the invitation; and here I thought I would merely be a sightseer. For one, I've never liked ceremonies of any kind and I don't think I've ever been to a decent wedding for more than two decades of my life. And I'd rather not start now, isn't it? There's also the chance of me having remedial classes on that date (just two weeks from now, jfc) and it's not something easily skipped. We took a last ditch effort to check for a wedding gift, duplication of the item be damned, and settled for a midget ricecooker that's decent enough for a starting family.

Anyway, work's still the same. My contract will end by the 31st and I'm quite sure I'd be extended to the year's end. I won't have much say on accepting it because I will for my savings. Heaven knows how much uni will price for next term's assessment with all the bullshit related miscellaneous. I'm stuck on how to present the survey on the proposal paper though. Quite complicated since each category has both essay and multiple choices. I'll have to device of something effective by tomorrow or I'll be doomed with my own deadline on the 8th. Dang.

Xmarks formerly known as Foxmarks is shutting down or rather, turning into a capitalist state where one has to pay $10 yearly for their services. Needless to say, tons of people are having their big 'no' on this including me who barely can allocate spare change to have my LJ upgraded into a paid account (just for the purpose of more icons). I've turned towards Firefox Sync which is pretty decent except that it won't have any online backup access of my bookmarks. I took the time to import it to Delicious though I'm not happy with their services, but merely for the purpose of importing data to Pearltrees. It seems though with the bulk of my bookmarks, Pearltrees is having a hard time with it. So I'm in a limbo with my bookmarks. It's a devastating blow to my online resources to have Xmarks going exclusive so I'm still in search for a good alternative. I don't need those social networking options on my bookmarks add on, thanks very much.

Backwards

Out of impulsion in the middle of a personal financial crisis I find myself at National Bookstore this afternoon plucking a Sherlock Holmes Vol I on the shelf and buying it before it even grasped my mind. That's what I get from getting off from work early. Bored and out of sorts. That makes Measure for Measure sidetracked again. Too bad I was on the brink of determining what's up with the stick up Angelo's arse and Claudio's faith in his sister's holy powers. The latter story made me think of He's Beautiful--kind of same plot ,yes? Brother's in trouble so sister's off to save the day.

Now I really have to push Yvette to feed me an early Wednesday dinner because we still got 3 more tests to conquer before proper lecture and reporting starts. I'm quite wondering too if the school had classes earlier since there was some riot this weekend. Not my problem unless it affects our classes again and rescheduled. I miss psychopatho and I miss my prof. Just met him once but I'm quite sure he's a cool prof and I'll learn tons from him. I'm not one to have a crush on my prof but if it's consoling, he's gay so obviously, I don't have the right equipment to dangle in front of him for seduction.

No work tomorrow at the office means work at home and some form of discipline. Oh before that, already done with Hard-boiled Wonderland, finally. It has its quirks and brief flashes of genius but I still prefer Kakfa over it. I do wonder though if Murakami's novels are often a composition of parallelism. He's a brilliant writer but not enough at the moment to be considered a favourite. Marquez still tops and probably Eco after. Anyway, work will be quite tedious tomorrow. I have to polish the draft for assessment report (love to call it ass report, pun intended), adjusted work breakdown structure, rough draft of the minutes from this morning's meeting and the survey tally. Quite many but viable if solitude is with me.

Ten-te-ten-ten

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I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

#3 I'm not even sure if there should be some hidden perversion behind that simple statement lol
#5 means I'm a horse. They can't vomit, right? Or is it cows?

Funked

At last I was in the brink of a panic thinking I won't be able to get my salary by the end of the work day. Good thing the boss was in a good mood. That means I get to have enough sustenance again to last me a week at most before I go crawling after Beth to leave me a trickle of my savings into my hands. At the very least, I get to pay what I owed my savings in oneshot, I think. I went straight to Megamall to buy a new battery for my Swatch; it's fortunate that it's still working after years of it's battery dying out on me and leaving it for dead in my cabinet. I had it done with some glass polishing so it looks pretty decent for a 5-years old watch. My Timex though which is just 3 years old is good as dead. They say it's the machine and it will cost 600 bucks to repair it. No way then. I'd better save enough moolah to buy a flic flac or something. Then something good but weird happened; in that fateful sense. I went to the food court and bought some meager dinner when I practically bumped into Zena and her older sister, the latter my ex-professor back in college. The absolute surprise came at the thought of I had nearly sat at a table a few metres away when I decided to change location, and at the same time Zena nearly dragged her sister to another lane only to be pulled back to continue in the same path where we eventually met. Got myself a treat of scrabble for dessert and funny stories from Zena's older sister who had worked at Dubai a few years back. We parted after an hour since they were still in the process of transferring to a new house; Zena's still pondering how to get her cat to stay at the new place despite their landlord's ultimatum of no pets allowed. I loitered around the mall for a few more minutes before I went home to be welcomed by an onslaught of ala Ondoy downpour. I wasn't in my right mind when I had decided to skip the tricycle in favor of walking only to arrive at home with practically my shirt only half dry.

I still have to go to school tomorrow, bugger it. I just wish it wouldn't rain by morning. Heaven knows what kind of hell it is to bring a laptop half your weight even a few metres away from the house. I'm off to meet my classmates to work on the group assignment and get my ID as well. Apologies if I can't even bare to think of the first session with both my classes this week. I'm just too drained to even make fun of it. Ah, I should email my psychopatho prof to give me e-copies of journals now.

Barely there

Honestly, I'm more excited on seeing Zena again than finally enrolling for my master's. I'm glad no one's making a big deal out of it too; just the usual banter for taking classes again. I guess it will materialize by the time I start my classes officially next Monday. I'm not mentally prepared on the idea of getting home by near midnight twice a week but that's the price to pay, right? I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the uni's library though. I'll make sure every penny on my assessment dedicated to library services will be met with satisfaction.

It's the 3rd quarterly socials tomorrow. It's getting tiring, I wonder how those folks who have served under the office for more than a decade can still have the stomach to attend these hoopla annually. It's not like there's anything new except for the usual program of selected folks performing, the usual disco and the quotidian dinner. I'm quite in doubt if I should bother going there (therefore wasting bus fare) by late afternoon because I already finished my work today. It's a good thing the STL error was edited in the last minute. Sir A can just sign them and we can be off to Fort Bonifacio next Tuesday.

Cine Europa's starting this Friday. I seriously don't have enough budget to even walk around the mall because I get hungry easily and that's such a fun, guilt-less way to shred cash until you get home and ponder about it. I might try one by Monday before class starts though, if I remember dropping by Shangri-la that is. My quest for a new job possibly as a part time instructor in some uni/colleges around the area might be possible. I had the chance to chat Mannel last night for some updates on Olai who invited me to her wedding but didn't bother to say when. Out of the blue, the topic swirled to overpriced eyeglasses, astigmatism then to new jobs. It's not like I'm born to teach but that's beside the point if I want to have continuous moolah flowing through my fingers. Mannel's pushing me to apply to her college since she knows an acquaintance who knows the HR of the institution. Walk-in application is preferred so sometime next month if I even bother, I'd have to drag Mannel with me to apply and to have some time to chat. That's two birds in one stone.