Real Life: of graduation and new beginnings

I finished attending my brother's graduation this afternoon, and it brought me back memories. I endured trying not to sleep, just to give respect to the people on stage. As I finally saw him receiving his diploma, I thought of mine, still encased in that red velvet covering with my medium graduation portrait beside it, and even the happy faces of my mom and dad.


We all know that graduation is entitled to the end of elementary / high school / college life and commencement onto a new phase in life. Parents are really happy that their kids finally reaped the fruits of their labor after working hard to pay the tuition fees. For the cream of the crop, especially the valedictorians / magma cum lades and salutatorians / suma cum lades, dedication with extra effort equates to greater rewards. But for the rest, simply having the privilege of getting the diploma would be enough.


But while graduating may be a good thing, it also means saying goodbye to the good times one has with his school peers. Although they may be able to still keep in touch, things will never be the same, especially when going on separate ways.


Never forget the lessons learned during your years of studying, not just the usual subjects, but real ones as well. 


Congrats, graduates! Hats off to all of ya! 

Discovering more about Japan's culture

With so many things to love about Japan, the country has become a popular place for people to flock in. One would just wish he or she would live there to relish the delicacies of Japanese culture.

Speaking of Japanese culture, I just watched the TV show entitled "Culture: Japan", hosted by popular blogger Danny Choo and K-On voice actress Satomi Oda. The show features some of the stuff that make the land of the rising sun very famous. Here are a few of them featured in the episode:

Cosplay: Popular Pinoy cosplayer Alodia Gonsiengfiao was featured there, with a sneak peek about her home which is also a workshop for her cosplay sorties.

Anime Figures: Mr. Choo was granted permission for a tour about Good Smile Company, the guys behind some of the most renowned anime figurines. The show even featured a few of the figure collectors and Amiami rated the top 10 best figurines to look out for.

Anime: DigitalHolywood was included there also, which served as a training ground for all future animators all over the globe.

Student Life: Fujisawa High School was indeed a school of its own kind, which allowed students to create their own time tables to suit their interests. 

I sure hope there will be another episode of the show, so that viewers everywhere would savor more about the Japanese pop culture. I hope this will spark your interest... ^^

For more about Danny Choo's blog, you can visit dannychoo.com

Oh, and here's Alodia's website for an added bonus: alodiagosiengfiao.com

Influenza A H1N1 ruins school life, period!!

It’s been weeks since we first heard of the Influenza A H1N1 outbreak in Mexico, and now, even the Philippines became one of the countries affected by the virus, with over 700 cases being tallied by the Department of Health. Despite having most of them healed, and with new vaccine discovered and soon to be tested, the illness was still considered a hazardous threat to us Filipinos.

Believe me if I say that it ruins our lifestyle, especially when it comes to school. Some of our prestigious colleges & universities have their classes suspended for a maximum of 10 days due to confirmed cases of students being affected by the disease, especially those who were foreigners & even Filipinos who went to other countries for their summer vacation. It was a sad thing to say that the number of schools having suspended classes increased as time passes by.

Due to this quirky phenomenon, certain safety measures were sternly observed, like washing of hands using soap & water, using rubbing alcohol to clean our hands before & after our routine, sick students, teachers & employees wearing face masks & even the stationing of quarantine rooms for those found to be sick with flu. Even school clinics were providing flu vaccine for protection, but the price was so expensive that it may lead people to break their piggy banks just for the sake of being immune to the disease. Even schools have to give way to thorough cleaning, fuming & disinfecting, which was certainly another reason why classes have to be suspended.

So now here I go, as a student, going to endure 3 days of no classes, starting tomorrow until Monday, since my school will undergo thorough disinfection stage in order to be protected against swine flu. Because of this, the National Career Assessment Examination review session, which was supposed to start tomorrow, was postponed to next Saturday. Even I was pissed when DepEd announced that there will be no semestral break and that Christmas vacation will be cut short, just for the sake of completing the required school days. Grrrr!!!! I hate it when my school will be affected by these new guidelines, too.

I therefore conclude that all these happened because of that freaking swine flu outbreak. What a sad, tragic chapter that will be included in the pages of every student’s life, including mine… T_T

Back to my old life *sigh*…

So here I am now, back to my place in Pasig City. I need to prepare myself for my upcoming 4th year high school life, since classes will start on June 8. Oh well, this means I’ll suffer again the difficulties of a high school student, like lots of assignments, seatworks, and the like; strict teachers who comment every now and then about our attitude; intensive reviewing during quizzes, long tests & periodical exams; etc.

And since I need to focus on my priorities, I’ll be having limited time playing online games again. Because of that, I don’t know if I’ll be able to enjoy the good old days of my Nevareth journeys in Cabal again, or going back to my Etherian adventures in Lineage 2 (I stopped playing there during my summer vacation since the PCs there were not fit for that… >_<) and meet my beloved Kamael prince once more, or having to dust off my characters in Rohan. But anyway, I’ll try to make most of my short time.

And since I have one more year to go before I’ll graduate from high school, more challenges await me as preparation for college life, including NCAE, applying for universities, entrance exams, etc.

I still don’t know if I’ll be able to go over these things, but I hope I’ll overcome them. So wish me luck… Jaa – ne! ^^