Tidbit 017

When I was young and full of hope.....

I used to be deathly scared of cockroaches. Whenever I'd see one I'd run off and tell one of my parents or the house help to get rid of it for me. There were even times when I would literally climb up the door frame if I saw one along our second floor corridor.

There was even one point that we saw a flying cockroach that my dad shot down with a pellet gun he had stashed away. xD

I'm not so afraid of them anymore. I can kill them on my own now without problems. As long as I had a slipper with me at the ready.

Japanese Intros

こんいちは！

はじめまして。

トリシア　です。

アテネオ　の　がくせい　です。

今　三年背絵　です。

専門　は　コンピューター　かがく　です。

十九歳　です。

どうぞ　よろしく～

(Translation: Hello!

How do you do?

I'm Tricia.

I'm a student of the Ateneo.

Right now I'm a junior (3rd year).

My major is Computer Science.

I'm 19 years old.

Nice to meet you.)

Yes I was bored and thought of doing this for kicks. ^__^b

A little something I learned in my JSP1 class last summer under Ian-sensei. ^o^/

Arcade

When you hope on luck and talent to successfully play a game of chance at the arcade, you would normally not expect much. But there are just some instances when luck is on your side and you get something you want.

That's exactly what Kai did during our reunion last Saturday. She got me this cute keychain~ I only got to take a picture of it only now though. And I'm wearing my contacts today too~ ^___^

ほんとう　に　ありがとう　こいびと～

(Translation: Thank you so much, love~)

School's Out!

So today is the first official day that I'm free from all academic requirements. My sophomore year has come to an end. A few minutes ago I was computing for my Yearly QPI (Quality Point Index) and even in the worst case scenario of possible grades I might get from my subjects this semester based on my performance (save for 2 that I pretty much know the grade of), I think it's safe to say I'd be a junior once summer classes start.

I guess my immediate concern now is the outcome of my History Finals. I'm hoping I did just enough to at least get the minimum grade to pass the darn subject. Apparently I've got no talent for it unlike my dad, which is pretty disappointing actually. (><)

Oh well. Let bygones be bygones, and hope for the best. ^____^

The lowest I could get is about a 2.5 for this semester and a 2.9 for the year, which is still pretty good (1 is lowest and 4 is the highest on our scale). My best case prediction would amount to about a semestral QPI of 3.02 and a yearly QPI of 3.08. So yeah. :3

----

Oh yeah, before I forget:

おたんじょうび　おめでとう　上島ーせんせい！

(Translation: Happy birthday Ueshima-sensei!)

For those who don't know, Ueshima Yukio is the director/choreographer of the TeniMyu franchise. Hope he has a great birthday!! ^o^/

TeniMyu Birthdays~

March 24 marks the birthdays of two TeniMyu personalities: Takigawa Eiji (Seigaku Cast 1's Tezuka Kunimitsu) and KENN (St. Rudolph's Fuji Yuuta)!!

It's always nice to remember birthdays like that. Now that I recall there are other birthdays coming up tomorrow and on Friday. So yei to that!

^o^/ ^o^/ ^o^/

Tensou Sentai Goseiger

I finally finished watching Samurai Sentai Shinkenger last Saturday and now I move on to the next Sentai Series: Tensou Sentai Goseiger!

There's a lot of new stuff to get used to (like realizing that I'm not watching Shinkenger anymore and shouldn't expect the familiar opening tune to start. :P), but Alata, Hyde, Agri, Eri and Moune are making things worthwhile~

Skick Tribe: Alata (GoseiRed) and Eri (GoseiPink)

Landick Tribe: Agri (GoseiBlack) and Moune (GoseiYellow)

Seaick Tribe: Hyde (GoseiBlue)

^____^v Crush those Warstars!

Reunions + Alice

So while I take a short break from reviewing for my Finals tomorrow, I wanted to make a quick entry on yesterday's events. Most prominently was the reunion with my grade school barkada. Kai was the one who organized the get-together, and it goes without saying that we're beginning to see a trend in these reunions: people are always late, we're never complete and there's always a consistency in the order which people get to the venue.

But before I go into the details of said reunion, allow me to take a little detour to discuss something else rather briefly. Alice in Wonderland. OMG. Kai and I watched it yesterday. We were about 30mins late since we were debating if we would still watch it despite having front row seats (which is bad for your neck), and ended up watching. It was my treat anyway. xD

And I've got to hand it to Tim Burton. The story was awesome and there was a great mixture of comedy, drama and subtle hints of romance. *coughIshipHatterandAlicecough* ^_____________________^

Truly awesome~ It was entertaining to recognize some of the voice talents (like Alan Rickman, Christopher Lee and Timothy Spall) as well as the cast members themselves (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway).

Anyway, that aside, back to the reunion! To put things simple enough, it's nice to see old friends again. xD We really need to work on punctuality and proper planning, though.

Last Days Pt 2

Yesterday we had another Kodak moment with another of our teachers (at least for practically half of our block xD): Sci 10 Science and Society, Section L under Ma'am Favis. Awesome semester it's been. The journey ends March 25 when we take our final Long Test. Aww.

Here's the picture~ Pardon the blurriness. Sometimes this is why I don't trust other people taking the picture. (><)

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger Progress

I hope to finish watching the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger series soon. ^___________^

Out of the 49 episodes, I'm finished up Act 43. It's been a fun ride watching this sentai series; it brought back my enjoyment in watching these types of shows (Power Rangers reminiscing, anyone?).

The next on my list is Tensou Sentai Goseiger!! It stars Tenimyu actors Hamao Kyousuke (4th cast Seigaku Kikumaru Eiji) and Ono Kento (1st cast Rikkai Dai Yanagi Renji)~

Last Days

It's never an easy thing to bid farewell to things, especially when you never realized just how fast time flies. As the days count down to the official end of my sophomore year, it pays to have a little Kodak moment to savor the moment.

Here's the first one of the bunch (if there ever will be any): Ps140 Electronics Sections A1 and A2 under Sir Toto. The picture's incomplete for two reasons: some of my blockmates left early and Tiff and I took turns taking the picture.

It was funny how one of our blockmates (Jun Young, the one just above me wearing glasses (I'm in red in the bottom there xD)) insisted on taking the picture because he wasn't very fond of being in pictures. xP Managed to get him to agree though. xDD Woohoo. Both CS sophomore blocks~

Math Projects

It's past midnight but I thought I'd take the time to compose a quick entry anyway while I'm still here. My initial excuse was waiting for my battery to fully charge but it finished just a few whee moments before I actually clicked on 'New Post' so meh.

So why am I up this late? Usually, regardless of schoolwork, tests to study for or readings that need to be read I just chuck everything onto my desk, shut Roy (my laptop) down and just plop onto bed with the lights closed and head off to sleepyville. The reason, my friends is a Math Project.

Why is that such a big deal? Well, so much as it's much easier working in pairs (which we are), Java isn't very easy to grasp unless you're a natural genius at picking up stuff like my partner Jason is. xP Lemme give you a little insight on what exactly we're supposed to do.

This is actually the second and last project we've had for our AMC125 (Calculus for Computer Science II) class that involves solving ciphertext and converting it into plaintext and vice versa. Basically numbers to letters and back with the use of nifty keys and stuff (particularly the RSA Cryptosystem, just so you guys know). Our deadline is on Friday (which is 2 mere days from now), and we were lazy bums to do it last week or the week before that, so we cram (though not to the max!) it until the week it's due. Wheee.

My head hurt a lot with this, but I got my part of the program (the decode method) to work smoothly (with a lot of help from Jason. Go figure xD).

I'm off to bed now. @u@ One less headache for the week~

^__^b

1 year and 4 months

Last March 9, during our 16th monthsary (1 year and 4 months), Kai and I watched the annual CSC play group which her mom was directing. At the last minute, Dad lent me the car so I had to meet him and find a parking space before I literally rushed out from MC to the nearby flower shop across the street to purchase a bouquet of flowers to congratulate Kai's mom.

Kai and I literally got front row seats for the play, and it was really entertaining and cute to look at the bunch of kids on stage dancing and acting (singing was an exception because the songs were pre-recorded).

After the play, we went backstage to see Kai's mom and wait for the auditorium to filter out the kids and their parents who came to watch. Above is a picture I took of Kai with the flowers her mom got. Ours is the one in the bottom with the red roses. xP

Not wanting to pass up the opportunity and abuse the mirror that was in the dressing room, I snapped a picture of us to commemorate the day spent together. I found the time to put on my contacts on today for the special occasion~ ^__^b

And finally, this is something I feel I should share. xD Kai insisted on having my picture taken with the doghouse at the left side of the stage (where apparently there was Blue from Blue's Clues).

And there you have it~

The Obscura Society

My high school barkada. These were the bunch of people I hung out with in my final year of high school. I miss these guys. We were a big group, but it was fun in the long run to have been able to involve myself with them and end up tight friends despite the lack of reunions (which we should start having again).

What really brought us together was perhaps Rina's migration to New York. Counting down to the day of her flight, we really bonded, from graduation practices until summer vacation before college started. We scheduled some sleepovers just to spend that much more time with each other.

To celebrate, here are a few pictures and GIFs that should give you a rough idea of the fun and randomness we had.

Taken last April 4, 2008, during our group trip to Manila Ocean Park, Cal's dad treated us out to Teriyaki Boy in SM MoA before we headed to Cal's place to sleep over.

This sequence of pictures depicts an epic chopstick battle between Cal (on left) and Rina (on right). Rina obviously lost. xDD

Taken last May 1, 2008, Mica treated us to lunch at Yellow Cab in Eastwood where we later on watched Iron Man. This sequence of pictures has Maru (on left) (who migrated to Canada) and MarMar (on right) doing the Caramel Dansen. xD This was epically and forever will be a part of the OS archive of silliness.

And to finish things off, here's a video I made for the group using Wonderful Days, one of the ending songs for the Prince of Tennis series:

Tidbit 016

When I was young and full of hope.....

I used to consume notebooks and filled it with stories in script format. The stories of which were of random, imaginative events that were centered around me and my circle of friends (barkada, as we call it) from grade school. Me, along with Kai and another of our friends Elena did this activity to our leisure.

I wonder where those notebooks are now...

Tears of Joy

Let me share an experience I had on the eve of my 19th birthday. If there was anything more endearing than receiving gifts like a digicam from my parents or new shoes from my grandfather, it's to have something made from pure talent sent your way, dedicated for you.

And that's where my friends come in. All of them have musical inclinations with instruments that they took some time off to record and send me their cover of a song. They each did it in pairs, handling a duet of instruments for the song they did.

The first was Tsuyoshi and Hibiki, who did a piano and violin duet of Ave Maria. Similarly, there was Koji and Toru who also did a piano and violin duet of Music of the Night from The Phantom of the Opera musical. Having listened to them both, I was, no doubt, touched. But ultimately, it was the guitar and flute duet of Eyes on Me done by Kazuo and Yukio (from one of my previous posts) that made me consciously shed tears of joy for what I believe to be the first time in my entire life.

I can never thank them enough for this. And I wanted to take this opportunity to do that properly. -^_____^-

J: Today is....?

こんいちは！

今日は私の兄貴の誕生日です！

とは、私の日本への入国を締結

(Translation: Konnichiwa! Today is my big brother's birthday! And that concludes my Japanese entry.)

A Diamond

I was browsing through one of my old notebooks and found this slip of paper dated March 10, 2006. I recognized it at once and thought of sharing it all to you. ^___^ I got this during my sophomore year of high school that our biology teacher left to us when the school year was nearly over. I hope you guys find inspiration just as I did.

A man once found a cocoon of an emperor moth and took it home to watch the moth emerge. One day a small opening appeared, and for several hours the moth struggled but couldn't seem to force its body past a certain point. Deciding that something was wrong, the man cut the remaining bit of cocoon with scissors. The moth then emerged easily - its body large and swollen, its wings small and shriveled.

The man continued to watch, expecting that in a few hours the wings would spread out into their large natural beauty. That didn't happen. The moth spent its entire life dragging around a swollen body and shriveled wings - it never did fly.

The man consulted a biologist to discover what had happened to the moth. He learned that the constricting cocoon and struggle are both normal and necessary. The struggle actually causes fluid from the moth's body to move into the wings, reducing the size of the body making the wings strong and larger.

The struggle and pressure you are under today is not without value in your life. Don't be afraid of pressure. Remember that pressure is what turns a lump of coal into a diamond. I hope in the next few years, when we see each other again you have become the most expensive diamond this world could ever have. God Bless.

I will disclose my teacher's name for the sake of privacy, but when I, as well as the rest of her students received this very same story of inspiration, I can openly admit that at the time, it brought tears to my eyes. I may not have understood biology as much as I wanted to, but what I did learn from it is that everything has a reason for being done. And it all goes back to the the ideology that 'We are all precious'.

^___________________^ This is going to my memory box.

P.S. Today is my brother's 24th birthday. We'll be having a dinner party for him tonight here in the house. ^___________^v

Losing and Cherishing

They say that you only realize how much someone means to you when they've crossed over to the next life. For others, they've been convinced time and again how much that certain someone means to them because of the closeness they have. The realization that that person is now gone puts them in a devastating situation.

Now, why do I bring this up? That's because I know someone who lost his mother recently. Let's call him Yukio, but that's not to say that's his real name. Anyway, after finding out from some of his closest friends as to how he was taking the news, I really learned to sympathize with him and his family. I understand Yukio, who was quite close with his mother, and considering that she was his only parent left since his father's death.

I may not know how hard it is to lose a parent yet, but what I do know is that for Yukio, his mother wanted him to achieve the best happiness he could ever have. He has a successful career, and a family of his own to love and care for. From what I've been told, Yukio's mother was a really loving and understanding person, and loved Yukio's own family as much as Yukio himself.

I would like to believe that Yukio's mother would not want them grieving for her, but simply to keep each other close through this loss and continue what lives they live, the love she left to them being the thing that strengthens those ties.

And so I address this to Yukio: In losing someone dear to you, seek to cherish your loved ones even more than you have been thus far. In doing that, you will know that the love, care and support you've received from your own mother will continue on; in your heart and in the hearts of those you and your mother have touched.