20 Tanong

“A very special post for a very special course of a very special school.”

Saang eskwelahan mo mararanasan ang mga sumusunod?

1.  Magkasing-toxic ang major at minor subjects mo.

2. Nagwawalk-out ang teacher mo kapag nagreact ka sa announcement niya.

3. Bawal ang tsinelas at bangs sa loob ng kampus–maliban sa dean. (labet)

4. Ginto ang ngipin ng security guard.

5. World class ang facilities, in and out.

6. No Permit, No Exam kahit may CHED Memorandum na.

7. Laging offline ang ATM.

8. Pinagbibintangan ka’ng natapon mo ang pansit.

9. Mas masungit ang secretary kaysa sa dean.

10. Pahirapan ang pagpapapirma ng case.

11. Required ang student handbook pero walang stock.

12. Maraming tindera sa canteen pero ubod nang bagal.

13. Bawal ipaxerox ang reviewer ni Balita.

14. Sinasamba si Balita.

15. Free daw ang wifi pero P1000 pala ang Internet Fee.

16. Scrabble tile ang nameplate mo.

17. Amoy putik ang paligid mo.

18. May aircon pero hindi gumagana.

19. May pintuan sa pagitan ng mga klasrum, walang doorknob.

20. At ginto talaga ang ngipin ng security guard.

Saan? Saan?

The IRONY of Owning a Laptop

I can still remember how excited I looked last year when my ever supportive father told me I’ll be having a new laptop. Finally my rusty, old desktop PC will rest in peace!

The idea of owning a laptop hit me three years ago, during the start of the second semester. It was the time when I realized that the course I took will have me fed up with a lot of paperworks and requirements. I usually make my assignments and projects in nearby computer shops. I always get distracted by how many desktop icons appear in the screen. Oftentimes I get tempted to play games. I end up paying five times more.

So I nagged my ever supportive father to buy me one, eventually postponing my former request to replace my equally rusty, old mobile phone (which I had been with since I was in high school, good riddance). 

And after a month, I received a brand new laptop. It is not the “coolest” model in the market, but I [forced myself to] like it.

Irony#1

My younger brother would sometimes sneak up on my room  and use my laptop (naturally, I was so protective of it) to play online games with his classmates. After once discovering him exploiting my “property” without my knowledge, I scrapped him of his innocent ecstasy by placing a long password which in no way he will ever guess. At first I though I triumphed. 

But after a week, I caught him playing again. My initial question was not “Why are you playing?” but “How the f*** did you guess my password, you twerp?”. He grinned at me and showed me a copy of the LH tabloid. Oh. So he knew.

But days later, we quarreled over the issue of him not informing me about his games. And worse, I discovered that he was secretly downloading games and installing them on my main drive. (The twerp! So that explains why my top’s going nuts!). And we quarreled for another 10 days, until he got his own laptop.

Irony#2 aka The Classroom Irony

I know that I am not the only one who has a laptop in our class. But I do not understand why, whenever we have a group activity, I seem to be the most popular laptop owner and everyone starts to point fingers at me “Si Jet na lang yung powerpoint. Dalhin mo laptop mo bukas, please.” With my classmates’ pleading faces (and the girls’ [pa]cute giggles) I could not say “No. Mabigat. Hassle.” I just nod. To think that in one way, I am helping the group.

But it’s not the weight of the laptop that bothers me. It’s the idea that we have an internet room and only a few seems to be aware of it. I hope laptop dependence will not happen again in the future.

Just like Spider Man, owning a laptop comes with great responsibility (and patience). It’s not entirely cool to have one. In a developing country like the Philippines, it’s more of a “need” than a “want”.

A Taste of a Life of a Land Bourgeois: Tilling the Wonders of Farm Town

“That is so lame! Ang boring.”

This was my initial reaction when I first saw my friends playing Farm Town.  I’d never thought I will be hooked, too.

Unlike the usual computer games I play, Farm Town does not boast any edge on graphical design, nor sound effects, nor brain cell-stimulating missions. It doesn’t require you to be dexterous in clicking your mouse or typing on your keyboard. Even a simpleton will turn to be an expert in this game.

So what could have possibly got me hooked?

1. It’s FREE. Who wouldn’t want a free game, right? I have no money to buy softwares. 

2. It’s a multiplayer game. Farm Town is affiliated with social networks, such as Myspace and Facebook. When you visit other people’s farms, hang out at the Inn or beg for job at the market, you can post shoutouts like, “Add me in facebook” or “Who’s from Louisiana?”. When another farmer reads this, he’ll answer back and you can have a conversation. It’s a built-in chat.

3. It’s simple and the mechanics are easy to follow. Super.

4. It’s addictive. Di ba ma’am? (hehe)

Some people who haven’t played the game often calls it plain and no fun at all. But later on, as they progress to a higher level, they’ll be owning the computer unit for the next four hours. Look what happened to me. Lol.

So if you plan to play it, add me up. And you may consider the following:

1. Good internet connection. Perhaps due to the large number of players, the game often pops out messages like “Connection to server failed. Click the green button to reload the game.” Or something like that.

2.  Plenty of friends/buddies/neighbors. Having a lot of friends/neighbors have its advantages. It will be easier for you to hire or be hired. Working for a neighbor can also save you 50% of the cost when you hire them to plow your field. Adding buddies gives you instant access to your mates whenever you have the urge to harvest some berries/crops/fruits.

3. Belief in Mutualism. Throughout the game, some of your friends might send you gifts (e.g. trees, animals). While there are people who are so obedient they send you gifts back, there are some that you need to thoroughly convince so you can have that _____ (write something that you really want to receive).

4. Convincing powers. When you are stuck in the game (your crops are not yet ready for harvesting, you don’t have money left, or you want to increase your experience points), you may want to go to the Marketplace. This is where one gets a job. So how do you get a job? Simply “sell yourself” (according to one of friends). You need to be very submissive to the other farmers. Some players even beg just to have a job. It depends on you how you’ll convince the others to hire you harvest or plow.

5. Patience. The game lags sometimes.

It can also boost your self-esteem when you level-up. Hiring someone to plow or harvest your crops for you can make you feel powerful. And rich. But the game has its own glitches.

1. It lags. The most frustrating characteristic of all online games.

2. It is addictive. A common problem for students who are aiming for scholarship, for mothers who have little children, for teachers who are to make their lesson plans, for nurses in the station, and a lot more.

3. The money is fictional. Despite earning hundreds of coins, you cannot use them in real life. How effing desperate.

One of these days, perhaps Farm Town will develop how to convert coins to real cash. Or so I dreamed.

I Feel Malnourished

You may want to read this. It’ll make you feel smart.

I had never had a failing mark in my major subjects. But as to how I assess my Nutrition performance, I think I’ll soon be earning line of 7’s.

Never in my life had I been so consistent with something–well, that’s until I stepped in this subject. I don’t find the topics epistaxial. But I always wonder why I keep on getting very low scores during quizzes. First quiz? I  got the passing score. Second quiz? I did the same. Prelim exam? Failed.

I just don’t know what sort of grade will appear in my class card later on. 

Nutrition is not a complicated thing to study. The concepts are somewhat related to basic Chemistry and a bit of Biology and Pharmacology. I always tell this to myself, in hope of increasing my self-esteem. 

My teacher thinks my failing scores are due to my addiction to Farm town. But it isn’t.

It’s a multi-factorial phenomenon–I get lower scores whenever I try to review. It’s odd. Even my Strat teacher is dumbfounded by it.

I think I’ll just need something to motivate me to study—oooops.. May ipapaharvest pa pala ako. Ciao.

Surviving the Prelims

So far, so good. I just passed the prelims. 

I haven’t yet aced any of my quizzes. Actually, I always get an average score, just enough to pass. Sigh. It’s both because most of my neurons are dying so fast and I always have a hard time to concentrate whenever I start to flip my books to review. I am blessed with a comfortable room, free from any noise and distractions (I can easily shut the windows whenever our neighbors start to make the whole barangay their very own karaoke room).

I tried reviewing during the weekends, armed with my books and the notes I’ve borrowed (or rather stole) from my friends. I am usually enthusiastic on the first 15 minutes of the supposed-to-be 2-hour review. But after reading a chapter, I unconsciously doze off and wake up three hours after, just in time for my lunch.

I also tried reviewing at night. But I realized it’s just too hard. It’s not my habit to review so I end up surfing the net and posting new bulletins in friendster, changing my shoutout in ym and disturbing other people, or randomly open websites I haven’t opened before.

Or sometimes, believe it or not, I open the fridge and look for something to eat.

I go to bed early, usually at 9, with a little or (most of time) no “stock” knowledge for the next day. So you can just imagine how stupid I will look if I will be suddenly called to recite. But fortunately, that never happened yet. I feel so blessed.

I think I suffer from an attention disorder. There are times when we reach an ulta boring topic and I pretend to listen. I lean forward and nod in approval (of course that’s just part of the acting). My teachers observe my very good practice/behavior and so they look at me in the eye. Well naturally, I maintain eye contact with them while my fingers are busy texting under my arm chair or inside my bag. 

I dunno, I’ve never been caught texting in class before. I just can’t help it when the teacher does not know how to make the topic interesting. See? It’s not entirely my fault.

We are not bombarded with toxic assignments and research journals (Teachning Strategies aside)—yet. I don’t find my self (and others) na nahahahaggard sa buhay third year. I think everyone is enjoying the current semester. 

Little by little, I am starting to like nursing (don’t include IMCI please). Of course this is because of those tireless clinical duties. I want to wear my clinical uniform once again (I miss my white pants and shoes). I want to handle a patient once more and do the charting. Okay, I also miss the periodic vital signs taking and INO measurement. And the once in a blue moon IV push and IV removal.

I just wish the IMCI will be over (it’s too costly and I don’t think I’ll end up as a community health nurse someday anyway). After posting this blog entry, I’ll attempt to memorize the first page of the IMCI flip chart. Ssshhh. This is a requirement.