.:RAW Deal Available!:.

For all people interested in playing RAW Deal, supplies are now available at Club Arena in Virra Mall. Feel free to e-mail me any questions you may have with the game, if you so wanted to get started on it… :) I’d be more than willing to be of help to you.

.:Not Your Typical Slow Day:.

After the interview with Fr. Que, I was just intent on hanging around Grace’s house before we went and watched 50 First Dates. However, Grace was feeling particularly lethargic at the time, and so she didn’t want to go on with the date anymore. Instead, we just stayed for a while at her house, having fruit salad (Perfect for the scorching heat!!!) and balut (Semi-mature duck egg.). Not much there, really. Grace was just too lazy, and with the humid climate this country has right now, can you blame her?

Then out of the blue, Peppy texted me if I was going to Eric’s house. Pleased over the prospect of doing something productive, I gladly took the invitation and headed off to Eric’s house in a while, where Sacha, Peppy, and Russell were already apparently around. I was pretty lost going to Eric’s house, so I asked Eric for directions, when I was already at their street…

Marcelle: So here I am. Where’re you guys?

Eric: Okay. I’m coming out.

Ah, yes. What an admission…

So I was in the house already, and Sacha was up to her usual emotional blackmail approach, as she tried to make Peppy feel guilty about beating her up in Soul Calibur 2. I picked up quite easily on the game this time around, even scoring some good wins with my very solid Heihachi, whose sole problem at this point is doing his juggles well… Still, it was all fine. More gay innuendo from Peppy, though…

Eric: You guys okay?

Peppy: Yeah. We hot.

With four guys in the room, and Sacha outside, checking papers, that wasn’t exactly the most manly thing for Peppy to say, now, was it? Still, we had pizza again (Sacha: Oh, my. Eighteen inches might be too big for me!), and we were mostly indulging in Fatal Frame 2 after a while, and Sacha is such a scaredy cat, I swear. She refuses to so much as hold onto the controller while playing the game, and she sure as Hades was easily frightened by the cutscenes in the game. I, on the other hand, happened to be particularly interested with the lead characters, who were amazingly cute, although they had two small problems. They were apparently pre-teens, but they catered to Eric’s schoolgirl fetish, anyway. Schoolgirls are part of the equation when it came to me, but there’s a different requirement they met that made me pay attention…

In the meantime, Sacha was asking me if I remembered Hope, who is apparently still reading my LJ. Small world. They seem to know each other. Funny thing is, when Hope asked if it was Sach whom I was blogging about, Sach called me “one of her stalkers”.

Marcelle: Excuse me, I’m not one of your stalkers!

Sacha: You said so!

Marcelle: That was a half-meant joke. I mean, a joke!

Eric: Aha! See?

Marcelle: Look… if I were really stalking you, don’t you think I’d have lots of pictures and videos of you on my phone?

Peppy: *snickers*

Marcelle: Besides, I blow at stalking. And I have evidence…

I’ll show you that evidence next time…

.:Upon Leaving:.

After getting to know part of Eric’s family, we left at around 8:00 in the evening. In any case, I was mostly talking about different stuff I intend to be up to, and of course, is it just me, or is Sach really reading too much into what I say? Ergo, I end up having to be defensive with what I say lest her malicious mind starts running on overdrive again.,. she even apologized to Eric’s mom about me, for something I said about teaching in ICA that she misconstrued again… aw, shucks.

Later on, in Peppy’s car, Peppy was offering the ice cream marathon to Sach again…

Marcelle: Peppy, you have a weird concept of a date.

Sacha: Actually, I have a term for Peppy, but I don’t see him that way. Something to do with sugar…

Sigh. Peppy, the Sugar Daddy.

A while afterwards, we were talking about Dance Maniax, Guitar Freaks, and the like. Eric wanted to purchase a machine for “research purposes” for the CS department. We were relishing the idea of that happening, although I told them that among all those sim games, the only one I was good at in public was DM. I said I wasn’t too good with DDR, as I couldn’t quite do well when I’m pressured to perform…

Sacha: Maybe you just have problems… *hand is strategically approximating a certain spot* performing.

Marcelle: Omigosh, I got PWN3D!

Peppy: *snickers*

Marcelle: Guess I had that coming, after having been front-stabbing Sach on my weblog for so long. I mean, all those comparisons and comments…

In a few moments, she smacked me in the eye with a pillow. I swear, that hurt! She was apologizing to me soon enough…

Marcelle: And I thought only Gio could get this violent.

Sacha: I’m sorry!

Marcelle: Peppy, remember Sensei 2? Sacha, you have to kiss my eye!

Sacha: Peppy, as my teaching assistant, you must do it on my behalf.

Marcelle: Sach, how many times must I tell you? A soulmate is way different from a partner in crime!

Sacha: But you guys get along so well…

I’ve been PWN3D by a Persocom… payback for all the times I’ve been front-stabbing her, I guess… :)

Of course, if I ended up with a blackeye, explaining that might be quite a sticky situation with Grace… Peppy transcribed that better, though. But with this event, I am led to believe that this is the start of something… err… kinky.

.:Hilarious:.

Elbert apparently picks on Sacha in spite of the disparity between her and Abby simply because of her voice. On the other hand, the fact that Sach no longer wears glasses this summer may bring her down to number four instead of three…

In any case, it was nice talking to Elbert. He never lets up on the non-offensive insults (Once you’re used to them, I guess.), and you can’t help but laugh to it quite a bit… ah, well. Still, he had a valid question that he posed to me, though: don’t I think it’s quite an omen that one day after graduating, I’m already up and at ‘em on Radio 1? It’s almost like nothing happened.

Truth be told, the answer is obvious now, anyway. I’m the type who can’t just sit still and do nothing. I evaluate myself as I go along, I cross bridges when I get there. Stepping back and thinking things over simply doesn’t work for me, as being in the thick of things gives me more clarity as to where I would want to go.

.:Getting To Know You:.

I guess it wasn’t too late to get to know Rowena after all (I’m left to wonder if she has a nickname, though.). She’s a pretty nice person, although I have to admit that I really haven’t been able to hear much from her. I have to watch myself from dominating conversations with people again. I tend to gain nothing from it…

I’m glad I took the opportunity to approach her when I did, which was approximately our last day of classes with Mr. Bulaong. In spite of the fact that Mich was ribbing me over it because of the resemblance, I have to say that though this is a rather belated friendship that I started with Rowena, I’m happy about it, nonetheless. We had some very interesting conversations, and I really appreciated her listening to me. Next time, it’ll be my turn to listen. She's been really nice to me, and I hope that this is the start of a nice friendship.

I'm also glad she's a good sport. At number six in the list upon debut, that's quite a leap, so to speak... :)

.:An Insight From After My Chat With Rowena:.

I guess what I realized after everything was quite simple: when we graduated, I felt like everyone else graduated. They’re mostly gone, moving onto other fields, while I’m still up to more or less the same things I’ve been up to all my college life. RX? I’ve been doing radio work since first year high school. I’ve been working for RX during summers since second year college. Nothing new. Advertising? My whole family is involved in that industry. Philosophy? More of the academe, that I chose to stay in, not because I fear what is out there (Elbert knows this is obviously not the case.), but because I realize that my fulfillment can come through here. I believe that Bobby Benedicto, if he so decides to teach, has his own reasons as well, but I think fulfillment will likewise come into play.

And so everyone has graduated. Marcelle, on the other hand, is still on this path within the academe, leaps and bounds though it may be from the course he graduated from. Then again, Comm and Philo are inextricably linked (Big deal, though. You can link any two subjects in the Ateneo one way or another, anyway.), but what is special about this link is that it has formed something within me. A goal. One that I pray I could reach.