Yesterday was an exceedingly frustrating day, but thank goodness it was capped off by some comfort... ah, well.

.:On Angst:.

And so the angst continues to pile up. Marcelle has been on the receiving end on a lot of threats in his life, whether or not they are ever really being acted upon. Nonetheless, it becomes rather sad and pathetic when one completely becomes oblivious to the woes of the entire planet and expect the world to give that one his “fair share” of fortune in life, when a quick look around would spell out to him quite clearly that he has things better than most others would.

And at this point, Marcelle has had enough of angst. Angst does nothing for Marcelle. It doesn’t make him well-liked by more, it doesn’t make him more mature. If anything, it doesn’t make Marcelle, in any conceivable way, a better person. Nor will these favors be bestowed upon anyone else who believes in such. Bottomline is quite clear, really: if your angst has consumed you so much that you believe the world owes you, then you are deluding yourself. The world doesn’t owe you anything. If anything, you owe the world. Marcelle realizes this. A priori to anything he has done in his life, Marcelle has never accomplished anything that would’ve made him worthy of living, to begin with. Keeping this in mind, and realizing that it is not within our power to make demands of beings higher than we are, whomever we believe them to be, then we realize that all this angst about how unfair life is proves to be moot.

And in the end, who’s wrong and who’s night may not seem to matter in the thick of the fight, but Marcelle recognizes that the one who holds the moral high ground is the one who has every right to be angry. Not the one who was hasty. Not the one who crucified with no prior notice. No amount of angst, no amount of bad blood can possibly erase that fact, and with that fact, Marcelle can continue to be a smug, sanctimonious son of a bastich.

.:Obla-D, Obla-Dah:.

In other news... and breaking out of character...

Grace and I tried to go and watch the Oblation Run at U.P. Diliman today, only to discover that we came around just about five minutes too late. In spite of that, some people were saying that compared to last year, the turnout for this year was rather low, with more or less only ten Oblation runners this time around. Grace was extremely exasperated over how I seemed to be more excited than she was about going there, but I digress…

Grace and I ran into Imo, which finally answered Grace’s curiosity about her. Speaking of Chinese girls, Sarah Lee, my classmate in Political Science, was ribbing me yesterday concerning someone we both know, who decided to assert for herself that I liked her. Ah, well. That’s a change of pace. They usually act all coy about it. ::chuckles::

Nonetheless, I finally heard the audio for The Happy Tree Friends, and it strongly reminded me of South Park. The music was very juvenile, and it further honed the irony of watching cute little critters that look like they were ripped from Neopets getting all gory in a matter of seconds. I must say, it was funny how those CS21B students of Sacha were acting all wary of the short films, and then still feeling compelled to watch, nonetheless. Disturbing films that they are, I suppose I can’t recommend them to everyone. In fact, I don’t really recommend it, period...

Mr. Bulaong decided to give us a free cut for Philosophy, and Mich and I realized that one of our classmates, Arthur, has an uncanny resemblance to sir, especially since there was a time that he had pretty long hair. Nonetheless, it’s pretty amusing, considering how this may be the one semester I wouldn’t have to do an impression of him if someone will do it better than I could...

.:Politics Again:.

So Saddam Hussein finally got caught. Better make sure they don’t execute him, lest they make a martyr and a hero out of the bastich. Nonetheless, finding Saddam, as far as I know, is far less important than actually finding the weapons of mass destruction Bush was using as justification for this war. If these weapons did not exist at all, while indeed, Saddam was by no means a saint, we still set quite a dangerous precedent for war to be declared on dubious grounds.

In local politics, Senator Blas Ople passed on, which makes me realize that one of my closest friends has not had a full year since second year college wherein a tragedy wouldn’t happen. While I do feel sorry for her, I guess I can give her enough credit by saying she is a strong-willed person, in spite of this.

“No” senator or not, I really don’t think any decent human being could wish someone like Senator Ople dead. I know I wouldn’t, considering I was one of the staunchest anti-Estrada people ever. In spite of the man’s faults, he was certainly doing his share in working for the betterment of this country, and if one cannot forget another’s faults, one should not forget another’s merits, either.

.:Simbang Gabi? Holidays?:.

Much as I want to complete the nine masses for once in my life, it appears that will have to wait. For those who want to make it easy on themselves, they could very well attend the evening edition of these masses, usually around 8 PM. I tried completing it dutifully once, but then I missed one day. The fourth day, I believe. In spite of that, I was still pretty happy about it back then, but I suppose that’s all right…

Moving back, I must say that the RX event last Friday, while it certainly bombed, at least yielded me a new friend in Mark Lim. I know I’ve recounted already how many CP’s I’ve seen in that day alone, but that’s all right, really. I guess I just have to be more wary about the next Lim I see, because it turned out that one of my CP’s was Mark’s cousin. If you check my archives, you’d know very well which one it is... but anyways, Chico and Delamar certainly don’t seem like the type of hosts you should put in an event like that. I even ended up skipping the Radio 1 Christmas party because I didn’t want to feel out of place again like I usually do in gatherings like that. I have to admit that I’m really the loner type, so...

It was fun, really. We were joking around while we tried to get some people to go to the concert, especially when we were asked to invite the dormers. As soon as we headed off to the girl’s dorm, which was, at the time, open house, we were joking heavily about our “room to room” invitations. Alack and alas, those invites weren’t enough to hit the five hundred people that would’ve made the event look marginally successful. A few Radio 1 people I know were around, such as Steph and Troy, and that was all pretty okay, really.

On the other hand, that family reunion I attended last Sunday was funny, if only for the overload of Sex Bomb the whole time, what with their album playing, and their attempt to recreate Laban O Bawi with only a hundred pesos for the prize. Talk about really scraping the bottom of the barrel, but anyways...

As you can tell, I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping. Other than my family and Grace, I think the only people I intend to give anything to would be Abby and... I think that’s it, unless... nah, I don’t think I can hand out TWELVE gifts like... never mind.

.:Sentimentality:.

I finally met up with Ma’am Sining yesterday, after a long while of not running into her. It was good because she seemed very much happy (Of course, she always seems very happy, but there was something about her that added to that at the moment.), what with her being engaged to someone she got to know online. So for those people who think online relationships with French boys don’t work, at least this one did, though it was with a Swiss man…

Anyways, Ma’am Sining and I had a few stories to exchange, and I still strongly suspect that she’s either a distant aunt or cousin of mine, considering her family name and province. Nonetheless, Willard may very well be stuck once again with Kris Aquino, so this news about Ma’am Sining being engaged would have little effect on him… ::smiles::

Ma’am Sining was the perfect combination of a teacher I personally AND professionally liked, teaching a subject I really loved. Had I not been in Comm Arts, I would very well have ended up in Psychology, to begin with. Now, of course, my interest is leaning towards Philosophy, but I guess I have to wait and see on that.

Here’s hoping Ma’am Sining continues to be happy.

I just realized how sentimental an archivist I tend to be, what with my desire for letters (Preferably handwritten) and pictures. I guess I’m the type who’s preparing myself for the time when I grow senile. At least, I can still view all these memories when the time has passed, and that would still make me smile. Most of the time, I tend to be close to some of my teachers, who turn out to have quite an impact on my life. God knows my high school teachers Ms. Rivero and Mrs. Ting Flores influenced me quite a great deal, as did Mrs. Doreen Fernandez (God bless her soul.), Mr. Bulaong, Dr. Barbazza, Ma’am Sining, Mr. Jimmy P, and Sev Sarmenta.

I guess this explains why I’m apprehensive about graduating from college.

.:Comedic Value And More:.

My Media Law and Ethics professor, Atty. Perez, may indeed be intimidating and may expect quite a lot from his students when it comes to work, and reputedly (Emphasis on reputedly, as we have yet to find out.) stingy with his grades, but personally, he seems to be a fun person. When he talks about law and media, he has this condescending tone about media people, as though the people in media are full of themselves and think that they are untouchable. To some extent, I do believe he is correct. No, really. It's interesting how he talks about it. It sure keeps future media people under him on their toes, lest they become one of those people he'd refer to as "you media think you are a privileged class". He also has this rather interesting accent and diction.

One of the funniest anecdotes about him, though, was when he commented on the death of “Tiffany” in Matrix Revolutions. Figure out for yourself who the Hades he was referring to.

Abby, on an unrelated note, was telling me after the class how being a film actress for Bobby was more rewarding lately than her theater. With the latter, she rehearses for twenty hours a week, only to deliver a couple of lines as a chorus girl. With the former, she shoots for twenty hours tops, and is the lead character. Yeah, I guess that explains why she’s not too keen about it lately...