bumming around with google

I have just finished filing my Leave of Absence(LOA) papers yesterday, which makes me a literally certified bum now. I still have one and a half months of just bumming around the house and abusing the powers of the Internet to help me survive.

Since I have the luxury of time to do whatever I want to do this November and December, I stole this meme from one of my favorite professors ever, Ma’am Lorie. She’s in NUS now pursuing her MA, and yes, she’ll be my dormmate on January. Yay. Anyway, this is how it goes.

I. Here’s a nifty exercise for those who have nothing else to do: go to Google and type in quotation marks your name and then “likes to”. Then, post the first ten (10) things (or simply the interesting ones if you want) that pop up and make sense — sort of.

And since “Raymund” has been my overused name, I tried this meme using my 2nd name, “Victor”.

1. Victor likes to play soccer very much.
2. Ok, my name is Victor and I am currently single… I am a simple guy, who likes what I do.
3. Victor is terribly stubborn and doesn’t like to talk about himself…
4. Victor likes helping people find homes that they’ll appreciate and come to love.
5. Victor likes to hang with friends and family.
6. Victor weighs 56 pounds and likes to watch SpongeBob SquarePants at his home here on Long Island.
7. Victor is a guy who likes to discover new ways of doing things such as; Photography,Video and Audio…
8. Victor likes to talk about the past…
9. Victor likes to touch me inside-out.
10. Victor likes to enjoy a leisurely dinner of baby heads.
Items 9 and 10 are very interesting.

II. Search for the answers to the following at images.google.com and paste in the first image from the search results.

1. Age at next birthday: 20

2. Place you’d like to travel: Spain

3. Favorite place: Bed

4. Favorite object: Computer

5. Favorite food: Pizza

6. Favorite animal: Fighting Fish

7. Favorite color: Blue

8. Place you were born: Manila City

9. Place where you live: Quezon City

10. Name of a past pet: Chomsky (My fighting fish before)

11. Screen name/ nickname: Phonologist

12. Your first name: Raymund Victor (Why did it end up with a chapel? Lol)

13. Your middle name: Morales. I love it.

14. Your last name: Vitorio

15. Your bad habit: Smoking

16. Your first job: Registration Assistant

17. Your grandmother’s name: Matilde

18. Your favorite holiday: Christmas

Isn’t it nice to waste time? I’m a bum, I warned you.

i’m going to singapore!

Just as I’ve promised to God in one of my night prayers, I am now coercing myself to be a very good boy. I promise to finish my last box of cigarettes and after that,I’ll have clean lungs again. also, I will try to gradually lessen my alcohol intake, and also to at least try to go home early and spend time with my family more. And though it sounds weird, I will also give confession and penance (and as well as hearing mass) a try as soon as i get over with all the obligatory issues and reflections that i still have to solve.

God has been very good to me and I think that really merits the “purification” of myself.

You might ask why, but yes: I’m going to Singapore. I got the ASEAN Union scholarship/ study award to be a one sem- nonexchange student to the National University of Singapore. As the official candidate coming from UP, I was chosen by ASEAN and NUS to represent the Philippines in the said scholarship program. I will be taking 4 modules there— all of which are not offered in the country. I’m already enlisted in one class, Cybercrime and Society. I am still trying my luck to be enlisted in Language and the Internet, Cinematic Discourse, and Language, Society, and Identity. I will be a recipient of 2,500 Singaporean dollars (roughly around PhP 70K) which I will spend for the rest of my stay in Singapore. A small amount, yes; since I still have to allocate half of that amount to my dorm. But the opportunity is such a blessing.

As of now, I am still awaiting the official package and letter of offer which contains all pertinent data about the program. NUS said that they already sent it yet by snail mail, so I still have the rest of November to wait for that. I decided to just cancel all my subjects that I’ve enlisted in this sem and resort to not enrolling and be a professional bum for two month (since start of sem in NUS is on January).

I hope nothing else goes wrong. Thank you, Lord.

election

last monday, i spent my whole day with my mom. despite the tired feeling since it was just a day since i arrived here in manila from baguio, i had no choice but to help her with her school work (she is the english department head in her school). we went to her school at around 6:00 am to check the stuff that i had to do, from archiving files to editing forms and even trashing some notes.

since it was the same day of the sk/barangay elections, i volunteered to be a poll clerk. it’s a position in the board of election tellers, the one who takes care of placing indelible ink on the index fingers of voters, and also checks the personal details of the voter, such as his age, full name, and birthday. during tallying, the poll clerk takes charge of the gigantic paper sheets, while the chairman reads out the votes and the third member lists them on the blackboard. of course, i wasn’t benevolent enough to do that for free. i did that because of the PhP 2,500 incentive from ComElec.

and since it was just a small- scale elections, there were lots of bumming around times when we just end up taking pictures of some random stuff. here are some:

indelible ink. out, damned spot!

coke in different containers

ze ballot box: the star of the election

i really didn’t think that i could enjoy such tiring activity. good thing only a few voted, and these people, i think, were not as grepa as i expected. lol

however, i don’t think that i’ll do it again. stress.

***

thanks to the election money, i have money to finance myself in my gimmicks and alcohol escapades this break. yesterday, i met my blockmates in sbarro trinoma to eat lunch. i even arrived 2 hours late because i got drunk the night before.

i super miss them. i really love my blockmates. <3

here’s to hoping that we’ll be classmates again in the few remaining semesters that we have.

***

3rd week of november is getting closer and closer each day. i’m scared. i really really really really really really want it, Lord. please help me. i swear i’d be a good boy.

i’m a dork

i can sometimes become a hardcore dork, and i’m sorry if i’m becoming one now. albeit the semestral break which is supposed to drive away all the nasty tensions and stressful mindsets of UP students, there is still something dorky that binds us all now— the CRS season (i.e. the computerized registration system, or the website where we can chose our subjects for the sem and also allows us to view our grades online). the last chance for students to participate in the preenlistment was already up, and i’m one of the students who were lucky enough to get 18 units, even though i just need 15. whew!

i just need to take 15 units next sem because i’ll be taking Eng 200 (thesis proper). i plan to make my sem relatively manageable by taking my two remaining major subjects, Eng 197 (special topics: Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages or TESOL ) and Eng 191 (Approaches to a College Education Program). That would be 9 units.

Up to now, I’m still not so sure what to take for the remaining 6 units. I got Aral Pil 12 (Suroy-suroy sa Wika, Panitikan at Kultura sa mga Isla ng Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao), Ital 10 (Italian Elementary Course), and Fil 40 (Wika, Kultura at Lipunan) via CRS preenlistment. I also got Comm 3 (Practical Speech Fundamentals) via the prerogative ofone of my favorite professors, Prof. TP De Luna. I have to choose only two among these 4 subjects. As of now, I’m thinking of taking Comm 3 (sure!) and Fil 40.

Anyway, this is my tentative schedule for next sem. Take note that this is subject to change, especially with regard to my Eng 200.

and since everyone’s posting their grades online, i want to ride with the bandwagon. however, my grades are still incomplete because ma’am bumatay hasn’t submitted our grades yet. anyhow, these are my grades.

yes, it’s my second 2.0- level grade in my whole UP life. loser. good thing it didn’t beat my lowest grade ever (bio1 = 2.25). still happy with my grades though i know i could have done better, especially in my eng120 class.

since my eng118 grade cannot go below 1.5, i know i’m still going to be a University scholar. yabang! hehe.